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The roll-out of the country\u2019s Covid-19 vaccination program gets under way at nursing homes this week.<\/p>\nThe roll-out of the country\u2019s Covid-19 vaccination program gets under way at nursing homes this week.<\/p>\n
HSE chief executive Paul Reid said the residents and staff at 25 nursing homes are due to receive their first doses of the vaccine this week.<\/p>\n
The roll-out of the State\u2019s coronavirus vaccination program began last week when 79-year-old grandmother Annie Lynch, from Dublin, became the first person in the Republic to receive the jab on December 29.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week we\u2019ll be starting in 25 nursing homes and 20 hospitals across the country,\u201d Mr Reid told RTE Radio 1\u2019s Today with Claire Byrne.<\/p>\n
He said they wanted to target the most vulnerable \u2013 those residents and staff in nursing homes \u2013 in the next three weeks and follow that up with the second dose in the following three weeks.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said on Saturday that all residents and staff in the country\u2019s 580 nursing homes will receive their first dose of the vaccine by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
There are about 70,000 people working and living in the nursing homes.<\/p>\n
Ireland is due to receive 40,000 Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccines each week this month and next month.<\/p>\n
Mr Reid vowed the health service would \u201cgo at pace\u201d to deliver the roll-out of the vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first vaccine that we have available to us is the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine. We\u2019re looking at a projected delivery of 40,000 per week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will deliver 40,000 per week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He predicted that over the next six weeks the HSE would oversee the roll-out of 240,000 vaccines, adding that the jab would be given to people seven days a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be a seven-day program utilizing all the hours we have available to us in all of our healthcare settings,\u201d Mr Reid said.<\/p>\n
He said the program had started on December 29 and it had continued every day throughout the new year and that would continue.<\/p>\n
The HSE has set a target that all nursing home residents and staff will have received both doses of the jab by the end of February. But it is expected that potential outbreaks of the virus at nursing homes could affect that target.<\/p>\n
The latest figures show there are now 744 people in hospital with Covid-19.<\/p>\n
A record 4,962 new cases of the virus and an additional seven deaths were confirmed on Sunday.<\/p>\n