Most General Practice teams could be vaccinated against Covid-19 in a matter of weeks, according to a leading expert.
The first doses of the Moderna vaccine will be administered at three mass vaccination centres tomorrow.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says the clinics in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise will focus on GP teams.
Great to hear confirmation from @CcoHse that 3 mass vaccination clinics are being stood up tomorrow in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise by @AmbulanceNAS to vaccinate GP teams from across the country using our first supply of the Moderna vaccine. 1/2
— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) January 15, 2021
Assistant Professor for General Practice at TCD, Brendan O' Shea says the situation is developing quickly:
"The HSE and INMO and ICGP are continually consulting around this."
Mr O'Shea says a portal is being set up so GPs can register.
"We are optimistic that in the next 4 to 6 weeks it is likely that most general practitioner teams will be immunised."
Pfizer To Temporarily Reduce Vaccine Production
Meanwhile, Pfizer is to reduce its production of Covid-19 vaccines on a temporary basis.
This will affect shipments to Europe later this month.
Leo Varadkar says Pfizer may be slowing down supply of vaccine: Mr Varadkar said he has no further details on how it may impact Ireland and only learned the news in the last hour https://t.co/NSuMCfP3u8 #guestpost #europeannews #europenews pic.twitter.com/xR5yxKvlW4
— @network_easy (@Network_Easy) January 15, 2021
The company says it's so production capacity can be scaled up to 2 billion doses by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the HSE has confirmed people will now get the second dose of the jab 28 days after the first.
The gap's being widened from 21 days so more people can get the initial protection.
Taoiseach Michael Martin said today a "significant" amount of the population will be vaccinated by the summer:
