Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Roll-out of Covid-19 Vaccination: Discussion

Photo of Colm BurkeColm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the work done over recent months. There are many more challenges in the months ahead. A few issues are coming up. The first relates to a certificate being issued to people who have received the vaccination. Can we get some clarification on that? Some people seem to be not in favour of this.

The second concerns the records of people who have received the vaccine. If someone is suddenly admitted to hospital and is not able to give instructions because of a medical condition, how would the hospital know the person has had the vaccine? Has that issue been considered?

The third issue, which has been raised already, is access to older people. In rural areas especially, there are people who are very much alone, do not have regular contact with others and do not have immediate relatives. What measures are being put in place to ensure these people can be contacted? Will this be done through GPs or public health nurses? What mechanism is being developed for that?

Finally, if the vaccine is physically available in the country on 1 January, what percentage of the population do we expect will have received it by the end of April? I do not want to tie the witnesses to figures but I wonder if there is an estimate at this stage.

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