Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Reid and thank him for his presentation. I thank him and his colleagues for their ongoing work. I have a number of questions which will require short answers.

I refer to data generally. I appeal to Mr. Reid to provide more figures on a regular basis. It is difficult because every week health spokespersons need to ask the Minister for information, and we repeat the requests here. I will preface my remarks by saying that everybody understands that there are supply issues and the supply is volatile, but it is important that we get data on the factual situation. I am talking about the actual number of deliveries that have arrived here. I am not looking for forecasts or projections, but rather the actual figures.

We now have daily figures for the number of vaccines. We have sought daily figures for the number of vaccines that arrive in this country. The Minister agreed last week that there would be weekly updates on the number of vaccines that arrive in this country. I want to check with Mr. Reid whether those weekly figures will be available on the data hub and that we will not have to plead for them to be made available? They should be published daily, or at least weekly as a start. I ask Mr. Reid to clarify that will be the case.

My next question relates to Moderna. The official figures as of the end of February state 40,800 doses of Moderna have arrived in this country. As of 28 February, the official figures state that 8,630 doses were administered. What is the reason for the very substantial gap between the number of vaccines that have arrived and the number administered?

On messaging and what the HSE is intending to do, it is important that it is a bit more specific because my concern is that people's expectations are being raised by the kind of general messaging that is going on. For example, three weeks ago it was announced that all those aged over 70 would receive the vaccine and that that task was starting. It was not made clear to people that there were sub-categories within that. We are now just getting to the point of finishing the over-85 cohort. It will be a few weeks before people in their early 70s are vaccinated. It would be better if we were told the HSE was starting with those aged over 85 and then moving onto those aged between 80 and 85. It would give people some idea of when they could expect to get their vaccines.

The point applies to cohort 4, people at very high risk. My understanding is that there are about 160,000 people in that category. It has been stated that this week 10,000 will be vaccinated. It will be some time before everybody in that category is done. The message should be clearer in regard to the period of time involved in vaccinating that cohort.

I have a question on the plan for the mass vaccination programme. At the moment the average daily number of vaccines being administered is 12,500. If we are to use the full expected supply for the second quarter, that will have to be ramped up to about 40,000 per day, which is a massive increase. Mr. Reid gave various figures earlier in response to the first questioner. Does the HSE intend to publish the plan for the mass vaccination programme? We know there are 37 centres, and have talked about 10,000 people being trained and 2,200 being recruited. When will we actually see the plan?

When is it intended to publish it?

My final question relates to tracing. What percentage of people are being back-traced seven or 14 days to find out where the virus is being transmitted?