Cork Kerry Community Healthcare vaccinators are this weekend completing the first round of the roll-out of the Pfzier BioNtech vaccine in nursing homes and community hospitals in the region.

By the end of Sunday, the vaccine will have been offered to residents and staff at more than 90 nursing homes and community hospitals, with more than 10,000 vaccines doses administered across the two counties.

This mammoth task has been undertaken by peer vaccinators in Cork Kerry Community Healthcare facilities, and teams of HSE vaccinators in private and voluntary facilities. Teams from the South South West Hospital Group have also supported the vaccination roll-out in the community.

The roll-out will now immediately move to residents aged over 65 in other long-term residential facilities, including disability and mental health facilities, with supply of the vaccine the only limiting factor.

Among the facilities where residents and staff were offered the vaccine this weekend were St Joseph’s Nursing Home in Killorglin.

Kay O’Connor, vaccination team lead in Kerry said that the teams have worked from early in the morning to late at night, all with the aim of protecting residents of nursing homes and community hospitals.

She added that private nursing homes have been very supportive of the teams.

It is a great achievement to have offered and administered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to all the nursing homes in Kerry within a two-week period and this would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of all the staff. The nursing homes were extremely welcoming of the vaccination team and every nursing home had extra staff on hand to help in the delivery of this very important vaccination programme. Everyone worked well together and we all look forward to working together again in the coming weeks in the delivery of the second phase of this national programme, she said.

She also pleaded with the public to continue to keep up with all the measures to stop the spread of Covid-19.

“Please continue to heed the Public Health advice. By rolling out this vaccine to nursing home residents and the wider community, we will eventually see an end to Covid-19,” Kay added.

Priscilla Lynch, Covid-19 lead for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said:

A huge thank-you is due to everyone involved in the vaccination programme. As well as our teams of vaccinators, so many others have worked tirelessly behind the scenes on this roll-out so that we can get the vaccine delivered quickly and safely.

While the vaccination roll-out is going ahead as quickly as possible, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare reminds the public that nursing homes and residential centres are still facing enormous challenges.

There are currently 47 outbreaks in residential settings across Cork and Kerry (this includes nursing homes, community hospitals, disability centres and mental health services). Most of these are in residential centres for older people ie private nursing homes and community hospitals.

Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Chief Officer Michael Fitzgerald said:

I cannot overstate how serious the situation is right now for many nursing homes, community hospitals and other centres. The level of staff ill with Covid-19 across the health service means that it is difficult for some locations to maintain their staffing at the levels needed, and this is a constant challenge. The HSE and Cork Kerry Community Healthcare is now supporting a significant number of residential centres in crisis. Staff are going to heroic lengths to make sure that residents continue to receive the care they need, and their communities may never know the debt of gratitude we all owe them.

Mr Fitzgerald said that despite these heroic efforts of healthcare staff, there is still an urgent need for more healthcare staff, particularly nurses and healthcare assistants, to redeploy to nursing homes.

He added:

I repeat our appeal for any healthcare staff, particularly nurses and healthcare assistants not currently involved in direct care of patients or residents and who are available to contact me on [email protected]

Mr Fitzgerald said that the best way for everyone else to support the efforts of healthcare workers is to simply stay at home as much as possible.

In particular, we ask everyone to stay at home and avoid contact with anyone outside your own household. This is the best way for you to play your part in stopping the spread of Covid-19 in order to protect residents in nursing homes and our healthcare workers,” he said.

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