EVERYONE IN Ireland will have the opportunity to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by September.
That’s according to a timeline published by the Minister of State for Public Procurement, Ossian Smyth, who has published a clear roadmap showing when each different section of society can expect to be inoculated against the coronavirus.
Under the plans, three key categories of Irish citizen will be the first to receive vaccines by the end of March. They include residents and staff in nursing homes, frontline healthcare workers and the over-70s.
The next wave of vaccinations will be for education workers, other healthcaree workers, individuals aged 55 to 69, key workers, employees working in crowded environments and those with chronic illnesses.
The final wave of inoculations, which will be rolled out by September, will see essential workers in less crowded environments, those aged 18-54 and those under 18 or pregnant vaccinated.
Under the plans, three key categories of Irish citizen will be the first to receive vaccines by the end of March. They include residents and staff in nursing homes, frontline healthcare workers and the over-70s.
The next wave of vaccinations will be for education workers, other healthcaree workers, individuals aged 55 to 69, key workers, employees working in crowded environments and those with chronic illnesses.
The final wave of inoculations, which will be rolled out by September, will see essential workers in less crowded environments, those aged 18-54 and those under 18 or pregnant vaccinated.
While Smyth acknowledged that "procurement and IT are vital to the success of the vaccination programme" he said Ireland was well-prepared with some 10 million doses secured.
"In addition to procuring the vaccines themselves, we need millions of surgical steel needles and syringes to administer up to 10m vaccine doses," he said.
"The rest of the world is trying to procure the same equipment. The chief procurement officer and the chief information officer report to me and have confirmed that Ireland has secured enough supplies to administer 10m vaccine doses."
The announcement of the timeline comes after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar confirmed that the AstraZeneca vaccine developed by an Irish scientist would be approved in Ireland by the end of January.
Once approved, Ireland will be in a position to ramp up the number of vaccinations, from around 50,000 a week to well over 100,000 by February.
