COVID-19 : Inishowen vaccination centre being considered

Inishowen County Councillor Albert Doherty asked about the possibility of a centre in the peninsula at the recent North West Regional Health Forum meeting, which was held online.

A spokesperson for the HSE said the safe roll out of the vaccine programme ‘will be delivered in a number of phases depending on the availability of vaccines.’

“As vaccine availability increases and a greater number of cohorts become eligible to access the vaccine, the delivery model (the locations and workforce) will transition to support a larger volume of vaccinations.

“In the initial phase, vaccinations are being delivered to prioritised groups in long term care settings.

“As the availability of vaccines increases, additional groups from the National Vaccine Allocation Framework will receive their vaccinations.”

They added that across the CHO1 area - Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim - they are working in collaboration with colleagues in both Saolta and RCSI Hospital Groups. A total of 9,296 vaccines have been administered to residents and staff across 54 Older Persons Residential Care Facilities and geographically based Vaccination Hubs between the January 7 to February 10 2021.

They added that the national vaccination plan ‘includes the delivery of large vaccination centres and county based vaccination centres.’

“This service will require a significant workforce to deliver vaccinations to the population under 70 years and recruitment is currently underway. The identified large vaccination site for Donegal is Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) - this facility is currently undergoing fit out and should be completed shortly. Other satellite sites across the County are under consideration i.e. Inishowen, North West and West/South Donegal. These smaller vaccination centres can be set up to vaccinate priority groups.”