News

People who are most at risk from COVID-19 are set to get the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine first.

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That includes people aged 65 years and older living in long-term care facilities. This will be followed by frontline healthcare workers.

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The target date for vaccinating priority Group 1 nationally is the end of next month, February 28.

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To meet the demand and manage the roll-out of vaccinations at nursing home settings across the country, a memo was issued to staff at Cavan General Hospital at the weekend informing them that vaccine deliveries had been postponed until next week.

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It is intended to vaccinate staff in all ICU and Covid wards.

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More than 100 staff at Cavan General received their first of two doses of the vaccine last week. A similar number were scheduled to receive the vaccine this week.

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As of 8pm on Monday night last, there were 72 patients are being treated at Cavan General, four in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and one available bed at the hospital.

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Nationally, up to Wednesday of last week, January 13, 77,303 people had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Of this number, 69,378 were frontline health care workers and the remaining 7,925 were residents and staff in long-term care facilities.

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A spokesperson for the HSE stated that “plans must be flexible” to accommodate unforeseen events, which may be operational or as a result of outbreaks of any contagious illness.

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“In the event of an outbreak in a residential care facility, a public health risk assessment is carried out to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents and staff. All public health guidelines and advice will be followed in such an instance and applied to any planned vaccine roll-out,” they stated.

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Meanwhile, the Irish Blood Transfusion Board (IBTB) was forced to cancel three clinics in Cavan last week following a concern over a possible COVID-19 close contact case within the IBTS collection team. The service had to call off their scheduled collection in the Kingscourt area.

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A spokesperson for the IBTS confirmed that subsequent COVID-19 testing of the team “proved negative”, and the service has apologised for any “inconvenience” caused to donors who made appointments to attend the affected clinics.

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The three cancelled clinics will all be rescheduled in the near future, the IBTS has said.

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Testing rates

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More than 800 people were tested for Covid in County Cavan the week up to last Monday, January 17.

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On the same day, 52 people tested positive for infection in Cavan, giving the county a 14-day incidence rate of 1413.8 per 100,000 population, around midway on the chart nationally. The national average is 1404.2 cases per 100,000 people.

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Neighbouring Monaghan is still displaying the highest rate of infection, with a 14-day incidence rate almost double that of Cavan at 2749.8/100K. In those two weeks 1,688 have tested positive for Covid in County Monaghan, and 1,077 in County Cavan.

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However, there continues to be a high rate of no shows for testing. Last week 8.5% of those scheduled to attend for testing at Ballinagh Health Centre did not appear.

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In Monaghan, out of 1,060 tested at Cloghan GAA grounds, 10.4% did not show up.

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The number of people who have tested positive for Covid in Cavan now stands at at almost 4,000 (3,948), with more than a quarter of those cases accounted for since the start of the year.

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In Monaghan, the number of Covid cases has exceeded 3,800, almost 45% of which have been recorded since the January 4.

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Source: https://www.anglocelt.ie/2021/01/19/vaccine-programme-continues-at-pace/