Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to update the House on Ireland’s Covid-19 vaccination programme. There has been much progress since we last discussed it. We hit the milestone of 1 million vaccines administered, and now more than 1.2 million vaccines have been administered. The vast majority of those living and working in long-term residential care have been fully vaccinated. First vaccine doses for healthcare workers have been substantially completed. Ireland is one of only a handful of EU countries that have achieved this. Ireland is leading the EU in prioritising and vaccinating people over 80 years of age. The majority of people aged 70 years and over have had at least their first vaccine dose. Approximately 95% of this group will be covered by the end of this week.

More vaccination centres are opening, and next week 28 of the 38 centres in total will be open. Recruitment continues for the vaccination centres. For April and May, we have many more vaccinators ready to go than are needed, with recruitment continuing for June onwards. The online registration system is going strongly. It opened last week for those aged from 65 to 69 years. By last night a very encouraging 83% of people in this age group had registered and vaccinations for this group started earlier this week. Tomorrow the online registration system opens for those aged 60 to 64 years, which is another important step. Vaccinations are moving at pace for those with underlying conditions that put them at very high risk from Covid-19. More than 100,000 people in this group have now had their first vaccination dose.

It is fair to say that we have had a busy few weeks. What is very encouraging is the impact of the vaccination programme, which is nothing short of astonishing. We have the lowest level of Covid-19 hospitalisations in a long time. From January to last week, there has been a 98% reduction in Covid-19 cases among healthcare workers, a 99% reduction of incidence in those aged over 85 years and a 100% reduction in the incidence in nursing homes. Given all this, it is not surprising that public confidence in the vaccination programme is strong. Nine in every ten people are saying they will take a vaccine when offered one. I thank the thousands of women and men throughout Ireland who are making this programme work. It is not easy. Last week, we had to adjust to major changes for the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, while keeping the programme running. Currently, we are awaiting further advice from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In the past week alone we have had changes to the delivery schedules for every vaccine for nearly every week.

In spite of this, vaccination centres are opening, general practice is running the vaccination programme at full speed, and online registration opened and is expanding. Critically, people are getting vaccinated at the pace at which we are getting vaccines into the country. I thank everyone working in general practice and in the vaccination centres. I thank the Defence Forces, the vaccination teams in hospitals and communities and everyone working in long-term residential care and disability services, in the National Ambulance Service and in the voluntary sector who are involved in this programme. I also thank everyone else working so hard to make Ireland’s vaccination programme a success, to ensure we protect the most vulnerable and that we have a path out of this pandemic.

The benefits of vaccination have put the Government in the position where it can continue to reopen carefully. Thanks to an all-Ireland effort, we are ahead of the best-case scenario presented just a few weeks ago. The R-nought number remains below one, and the number of close contacts has remained steady at 2.6. This is a major achievement for Ireland, particularly given the prevalence of the B117 variant. It has only been possible because of the continued solidarity across Ireland and the daily efforts of every person, family and community. The recent decline in incidence of the disease across all age groups has happened through our joint efforts, contributing to the protection of our loved ones and communities. As a result of these efforts to suppress the virus at home, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in Europe. We also have the strongest measures in place against variants coming into the country. We have a vaccination programme which is consistently performing among the best in Europe.

The plan is working and great progress is being made. To protect it, we still must proceed carefully. Social interactions are increasing. We all can see that. GP referrals for Covid-19 tests have increased this week. The number of daily cases is still higher than any of us want. If we reopen carefully, adhere to the public health measures and ensure enough people are vaccinated, we can look forward to what we all want, which is a good summer with our friends and families.

I will briefly address specific issues relating to specific vaccines. Safety is a cornerstone of the vaccination programme, and Members will be familiar with the recent advice from the European Medicines Agency, EMA, and NIAC regarding AstraZeneca. The EMA has added unusual clotting events with low platelet counts as very rare side effects to the vaccine product information for AstraZeneca and recommended the same for the Janssen vaccine. The EMA has been in regular contact with its American counterpart. The European Commission’s vaccines steering board, which oversees the procurement of vaccines on behalf of member states, has been kept apprised of developments during the course of all these deliberations. The EMA completed its review on 20 April, recommending the product information for the vaccine be updated to refer to the possible, but very rare, side effect of these blood clots. The EMA also said the overall benefits outweigh the risks.

NIAC carefully weighed the advice provided by the EMA on AstraZeneca. It has recommended that AstraZeneca can be used for all those aged 60 years and more. NIAC has also recommended that all those who have had a first dose of AstraZeneca should have their second dose. This applies to all age groups. The interval for those under 60 years is 16 weeks, except for those who have an underlying condition that puts them at high or very high risk from Covid-19, for whom the interval recommended is 12 weeks. NIAC is currently considering the EMA’s recent position on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and I expect a recommendation on that early next week. The European Commission has also successfully concluded an agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech to accelerate deliveries into April, May and June. This means more than 500,000 additional Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be in Ireland in the coming months, which is very welcome.

Notwithstanding the range of vaccines currently authorised or in various levels of production and testing, there is a need to consider the future trajectory of Covid-19 and the measures required to address it. The degree of protection provided by the various vaccines is being monitored closely. However, it is likely that further rounds of vaccinations will be needed next year. In conjunction with this, it is evident the disease is evolving such that a range of variants of differing severity and infectiousness have already been detected. Plans are being advanced by the European Commission for future procurement of vaccines. The Commission recently commenced negotiations with Pfizer-BioNTech with a view to securing a new agreement on behalf of member states. This agreement is for the delivery of 900 million doses of a reconfigured version of the vaccine across member states over a two-year period, which is very welcome.

If our collective experience of Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is that we must be flexible and adaptable.

The disease continues to evolve and our response to it must also continue to evolve. This applies to testing, tracing, genome sequencing, rapid testing, home and hotel quarantining and public health measures. Of course, as the past few weeks in particular have demonstrated, the need for adaptability applies all the time to our vaccination programme.

The past few weeks have been particularly busy as we incorporated several very big changes from NIAC advice on AstraZeneca to actions taken by Johnson & Johnson on the delivery of its vaccine into the EU to the very welcome news of more than 500,000 additional Pfizer doses for April, May and June. I have no doubt that changes like this will continue to happen every month, possibly every week, and will keep coming at us. We must continue to adapt to make sure that safety, as always, is a cornerstone of our vaccination programme and that we meet our core target, which is that people are vaccinated at the pace that vaccines are coming into the country.

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