Stephen Donnelly: AstraZeneca vaccine delivery delays 'very frustrating'

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly: Government will 'wait and see' what effect the potential slowdown of Johnson & Johnson vaccines would have on Ireland's vaccination programme. File picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The ongoing delays of AstraZeneca vaccine delivery are "very frustrating", but the target to vaccinate 82% of eligible adults by June is still intact, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said.

He was speaking on RTÉ television as the HSE confirmed that it would miss its first-quarter target for vaccines administered and 30 new deaths and 311 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed.

An initial target to have 1.7m doses delivered by the end of March is now out of reach, the HSE said today. It will be closer to 1.1m now, though Mr Donnelly said the internal target was always 1.2m. 

Mr Donnelly said that 95% of all doses that were arriving in the country were being administered and that vaccination is working.

He said that positivity rates in nursing homes are down to 0.2%, showing that vaccines are working where they are being given.

While he said the Government will "wait and see" what effect the potential slowdown of Johnson & Johnson vaccines would have on Ireland's vaccination programme, the ongoing difficulties with AstraZeneca's version of the jab is a frustration.

"The repeated revisions from AstraZeneca are very frustrating for Ireland, right across the EU. 

It is really important to say that the vaccination programme is having an amazing effect in the cohorts where it's being delivered. In hospital staff, there's a 95% reduction in infections.

"So the good news is that the vaccines are incredibly effective. The HSE's job is to get it out to the priority groups as it comes in."

Mr Donnelly said the challenge in terms of vaccine procurement is more to do with obtaining the doses. He said the Government had ordered enough vaccines to vaccinate every person in Ireland twice.

He said while the Government was "open" to speaking to the Northern Executive about a cross-border scheme around vaccinations in border counties, no conversations had yet taken place.

Covid deaths

Of the 30 deaths confirmed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today, 12 occurred in March, 13 in February, four occurred in January, and one more is under investigation.

30 new Covid related deaths have been confirmed by HPSC officials. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Some 135 of today's cases are in Dublin, with 29 in Kildare, 21 in Cork, 18 in Limerick, and 14 in Louth. The remaining 94 cases are spread across 16 other counties.

There has been a total of 4,452 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. No new deaths were recorded by the HPSC yesterday.

Of the cases notified today:

• 159 are men 
• 149 are women 
• 64% are under 45 years of age 
• The median age is 34 years old

As of 8am today, 397 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 95 are in ICU.

There have been 24 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Vaccines

The National Public Health and Emergency Team (Nphet) confirmed that as of March 6, 523,069 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered. Some 373,149 people have received their first dose, while 149,920 people have received their second.

Meanwhile, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, and the Department of Health say they have been notified of cases where members of the public, usually older people, have received suspect calls or text messages offering a Covid-19 vaccination.

Gardaí said they have been in contact with a number of people who received calls from someone claiming to be a health official offering them a fraudulent vaccination date.

Gardaí have urged members of the public to make contact with any vulnerable friends or family to raise awareness of these fraudulent calls and messages.