70,000 nursing home staffs and residents will be vaccinated

It is expected that nearly 70,000 nursing home staffs and residents will be vaccinated by the end of February. The process will begin on January 11.

The HSE has already drafted plans for the entire process. As per the plans, vaccination teams will travel to each of the 583 HIQA older persons residential care facilities, both public and private, to administer two doses over a six-week period.

The first dose of vaccine will be jabbed within three weeks and the second one also requires the same amount of time. The estimated time calculated for a vaccinator to administer the vaccine is 12 minutes and the daily target is 35 vaccines.

There was a guidance notice, which was issued from the HSE to nursing homes stating that nursing homes will be required to accept delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine into their facility and maintain the cold chain until the arrival of the HSE Covid-19 vaccination team.

It has also made mandatory that the nursing homes should register all the residents.