Initial low volume delivery of first vaccines could arrive before New Year

Formal collaboration with GPs began to work with HSE on a detailed process

Dr. Lorraine Nolan, HPRA

It is possible that a first round of vaccination could start before the new year, Health Secretary Stephen Donnelly noted after cabinet signed a strategy and implementation plan this morning (Tuesday December 15) to make Covid-19 vaccination national Offer level.

If an extraordinary meeting of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was held, postponed to an earlier than expected December 21st, and the first vaccine, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, was reviewed and approved, formal approval could be up to be completed by December 23rd.

A very low first round of vaccination could start before the end of the year on this basis, which can be heard this afternoon with the start of the Covid-19 vaccination strategy.

Everything is going well on December 21st. Dr. Lorraine NolanThe chief executive of the Health Products Regulator (HPRA) said that once the marketing authorization was granted, which took two to three days, products could be legally delivered in these EU markets.

The vaccines are to be rolled out in three phases.

An introduction in the first phase is planned for an initially limited number of doses. The second phase involves a mass launch of the program, and finally the third phase is to provide open access.

Under the plan, vaccines will primarily be delivered from long-term care facilities, followed by hospitals, mass vaccination clinics / centers, with community GPs and pharmacies being "keys" to delivering vaccines once large numbers of doses are available in the community Phases "mass launch" and "open access".

The first group to be offered the vaccine are the highest priority groups, those over 65 who live in long-term care facilities, and frontline health care workers with direct patient contact.

In the second phase of the vaccination program, mass vaccination centers, possibly on the scale of Citywest in Dublin, are to be introduced.

Paul Reid, HSE's chairman of the board, said at launch that it should be a centralized plan, managed and implemented locally, involving all community, acute care, primary care, general practitioner and pharmacy staff.

Speaking of the workforce, he said they should build on existing vaccination capabilities in the acute hospitals, trained health workers, the community-based vaccination teams, school vaccination teams, trained peer vaccinators, trained paramedics, and others such as potential retirees and other trained professionals will.

For general practitioners, formal engagement had begun and nominations were being proposed to work with the Health Service Executive (HSE) on the detailed process “in the next short time”.

The Implementation Plan released this afternoon should be a “living document” in that it needed to be agile, flexible and able to evolve over time, for example to include vaccines with different characteristics or to respond to lessons learned in our region Experience or international.

Dr. Tony HolohanThe Department of Health's chief medical officer said they would continue to update the initial prioritization as science and experience changed. He stressed that an evolving plan was needed.

Guidelines and clinical advice for Covid-19 vaccination are issued by the National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC), which is intended to complete an ongoing lead chapter.

The findings from the introduction in Great Britain must be taken into account. "In this regard, constructive discussions have already started with colleagues in Northern Ireland," added the plan.