Government slammed for its handling of vaccine procurement

A Navan Fianna Fail councillor has slammed the Government and Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, for their handling of Covid-19 vaccine procurement.

Former Mayor of Navan, Tommy Reilly said it was outrageous that people who had appointments for vaccinations have now had them cancelled because of the lack of supply.

"The handling of the situation has been scandalous and the Taoiseach and Government should be ashamed of themselves," he said. Cllr Reilly explained that he was due to be vaccinated this weekend and had a date for his first and second shots, both of which have now been cancelled.

Meanwhile, a number of Meath practices have had to cancel vaccination appointments made for patients in the over 70 age groups.

Dr Marie Scully of the Abbey Road Medical Centre said they had clinics arranged for Thursday afternoon and evening for the 75-79 year olds and Friday morning for the second doses of over 85-year-olds, only to be told yesterday they were only getting enough for the over 85 second doses, and were not getting any delivery for the 75-79 year old first doses.

"This as you can imagine was very disappointing for us and our patients. We had to cancel all the appointments made for the Thursday clinic. These will of course be re-scheduled but at this time we can’t say when. Our next delivery in two weeks will be the guaranteed second doses for the 80-84 year olds who were vaccinated two weeks ago. There may or may not be enough extra delivered for the 75-79 group. We just don’t know at this stage.

"It’s a big change from the excitement of four weeks ago and our first vaccine clinic!

"I appreciate that supply issues are not the fault of the HSE but we have found communication with them to be less than optimal." she said.

Anne Mulligan, Practice Manager at Bedford Medical Centre said they had invited their patients in the 75 to 79 age category in for vaccination on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but have had to cancel as they won't be getting enough vaccine doses.

"It is a very difficult situation.

"We will be giving our patients over 85 their repeat dose this weekend," she explained.

Meanwhile , there were eight people being treated for Covid-19 in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan as of 8pm last night, along with one suspected case. There were no Covid-19 patients in the intensive care unit.

There were seven confirmed cases in hospital in Drogheda along with one suspected case and no confirmed cases in critical care beds.

A further 349 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland this evening, including 23 in Meath.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) also reported an additional 18 deaths from the virus..

The total number of confirmed cases is now at 227,663. The number of Covid-19 related deaths stands at 4,552 .

The number of patients in ICU across the country is up three to 88.

The number of patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in Ireland is 355, a reduction of five cases since yesterday evening.