Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler, Feighan and Rabbitte. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to update the House on the national response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Deputies will all be aware of the significant decisions taken by Government in the past few weeks regarding the new measures put in place to combat Covid-19. I would like to share with the House why these decisions were made.

The epidemiological situation has deteriorated substantially in recent weeks. The level of infection has increased rapidly and our 14-day incident rate is now 1,410 cases per 100,000 population. In addition, the R-nought number was estimated last week to be between 2.4 and 3 for the entire country. The incidence rates are high across all age groups, especially young adults, and across every part of the country. Incidence rates in those aged 65 and older remain high and are a cause for concern. The numbers in hospital and in critical care are increasing and putting enormous strain on our hospital system. Our thoughts and prayers are very much with those in critical care right now and with their families and friends. We know that most people who get the virus will have mild symptoms that resolve themselves but we also know we can expect to see a proportion of people infected with the virus who require hospitalisation. We know a smaller percentage of them will require intensive care and there is a percentage as well, tragically, who will die. I extend my heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives so far to this awful disease.

The prevalence of a new Covid-19 variant is also a considerable concern. The highly transmissible variant first identified in the United Kingdom highlights the importance of strict adherence to public health guidance. It is now more important than ever for everyone to stay at home and avoid social contacts and for us to double down on our efforts to suppress this virus. In tandem with our efforts to limit person-to-person transmission, we must continue to identify the disease in our community. Testing and contact tracing continue to be essential in how we fight this virus.

While what is going on right now is really difficult for people, there is hope. In recent weeks, two vaccines have received regulatory approval from the European Medicines Agency, EMA, and a third will be decided on before the end of the month. Ireland's Covid-19 vaccination programme is now well and truly under way. As Deputies will be aware, the programme has been further accelerated to deliver the first dose of vaccinations to all nursing home residents and staff by Sunday week, that is, 24 January, and to all residents over 65 years of age in residential disability and residential mental health settings and approximately 70,000 front-line healthcare workers both in hospitals and in the community.

Colleagues in the House and people all over Ireland are understandably asking which priority groups will be vaccinated and by when. People want to know when they, their loved ones and those most vulnerable will be vaccinated. To date, only two of several possible vaccines have been authorised and neither Ireland nor any other EU member state has accurate delivery schedules for any vaccines except the two that are authorised, namely, those produced by Pfizer and Moderna. As a result of this, it is not possible for Ireland or other member states to accurately predict vaccination deliveries and, therefore, vaccination levels past approximately the end of February. Nonetheless, I will provide the House with at least some provisional numbers. We are planning on receiving enough vaccines to be able to inoculate 700,000 people by the end of March. Critically, this will vaccinate the top three groups on the prioritisation list, that is, those in long-term residential care - namely, staff and residents - front-line healthcare workers and people over 70 years of age. We are further planning to be able to vaccinate more than 1.5 million people in quarter 2 and more than that again in quarter 3. At these levels, people most at risk of Covid-19 will be fully vaccinated by the summer. I stress that I am providing this information to colleagues in an effort to give some sense of where we are moving to and at what speed, but these numbers are highly provisional. They include estimates for delivery schedules for vaccines that are still be approved. I hope colleagues will treat the numbers and the forecasts in that context.

Work is ongoing to ensure that people have easy access to vaccination details, including the numbers who have been vaccinated. I know there is much interest in this. Updated figures, which I am delighted to be able to share, will be available on the Covid-19 data hub from this weekend and regular updates will, of course, follow. Work is also under way to add vaccine numbers administered to the Covid-19 tracker app as soon as possible.

I will finish by making two points. The first is that I want to thank once more everyone working across Ireland’s health care system for continuing to step up at our country's time of crisis from those in our hospitals to community health teams to those working in GP practices, pharmacies, voluntary organisations, nursing homes and everybody in between. Second, I reiterate just how serious the situation is right now. The UK variant, which is far more contagious than anything we have dealt with so far, now accounts for in excess of half of all new cases. The way we support our healthcare workers and keep each other safe right now is to follow the public health guidelines and to stay at home.

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