Criticism of wait for local vaccine centre to open

A local councillor has strongly criticised the fact that Offaly's mass vaccination centre is not expected to open for another 10 days, claiming the county is "being left until last in the Midlands".

Oireachtas members, and some local councillors, are due to be given a tour of the vaccination centre set-up at the Tullamore Court Hotel this afternoon (Friday), but Cllr Sean O'Brien said he was told it was not expected to open until the week beginning on Bank Holiday Monday, May 3.

The Independent councillor was given that opening date for the Tullamore centre at a meeting of the HSE Regional Forum on Tuesday.

"I was astounded to hear that, because the vaccine centres in Portlaoise and Athlone are open as of this week," he said.

"Offaly has had some of the highest (Covid-19) incidence rates in the country, and the Tullamore electoral area was also specified as one of the highest in the country, so I would have thought we would have been prioritised.

"I really can't understand it. They have encouraged people to go online and register, and thousands of people did, but now that they're registered they're not going to be called.

"To me, it's not acceptable. I can't accept the fact that we're being left until last in the Midlands."

The vaccination centres in Athlone IT and at the Midlands Park Hotel began administering jabs in recent days, and the HSE said the scheduling of appointments was now commencing for the other Midlands centres in Tullamore, Mullingar and Longford, which would open "in the coming weeks".

It was announced in February that the Faithful Fields GAA complex in Kilcormac would be Offaly's mass vaccination centre, but the following month the venue was switched to the Tullamore Court Hotel.

It's anticipated that there will be capacity at the Tullamore centre to allow 10 people be vaccinated at one time.

Fianna Fáil's Cllr Tony McCormack who, like Cllr O'Brien, is a member of the HSE Regional Forum, said the change of venue for the vaccine centre was a factor in slowing preparations for its opening.

"Unfortunately we were a bit behind the curve because of the difficulties with obtaining a site and, I suppose, the confusion around the Faithful Fields site," he said.

However, he pointed out that May wasn't far away and he was hopeful the anticipated ramping-up of vaccinations would come to pass.

"To have 80% of the adult population done by the end of June would be some feat, but I think they are on target at the moment if the agreed vaccines that are coming into the country materialise," he said.

Cllr McCormack also indicated he was in favour of extending the time between people's first and second dose of the vaccine in order to give more people a first shot quicker.

"It seems to have proved very successful in the UK to have a twelve-week gap between the first jab and the second jab," he said.

"At the moment, depending on the vaccine you get, it's three or four weeks before you get your second jab here. If that gets pushed out, we'd be able to cover a lot more people which would be good because your first jab does provide a serious amount of protection.

"It means that if you do pick up the virus you have a certain amount of protection, and it normally means the symptoms will be a lot less and people will be able to handle it.

"It also means we might be able to open up more of the businesses in the hospitality sector and allow more people go to football games, weddings, and religious services," he said.

The centres in Athlone and Portlaoise are currently administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged between 65 and 69.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved by the European Medicines Agency and Ireland's National Immunisation Advisory Committee, and is recommended for use in people aged over 60.

Cllr O'Brien said that while some people had voiced reservations to him about particular vaccines, the vast majority just want to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

"People, particularly the older age group, want to get their lives back to normal. The older age groups have now been cocooning for over a year, and they're very anxious to get the vaccine and get back out into the community," he commented.