Covid vaccine centre up and running in Roscommon hotel
The Covid-19 vaccination programme across county Roscommon has moved to a newly-established vaccination centre in the Abbey Hotel.
"We began vaccinating here in the Abbey Hotel yesterday and by the end of this week we expect to have vaccinated 1,800 people," said Ursula Morgan, the Director of Nursing at Roscommon University Hospital.
"This includes healthcare staff and people who are aged 16-69 at very high risk."
She said the healthcare worker vaccinations which had been taking place in the hospital have now been moved to the new centre at the hotel in Roscommon town.
"Across the west and north west we have established six vaccination centres which will ultimately be used to deliver the vaccination programme to the wider public.
"Here in the new Roscommon vaccination centre, staff from Roscommon University Hospital and Community Healthcare West are administering the vaccine and we are currently recruiting additional staff, including vaccinators.
"We are very grateful to Tom and Adrian Greally and the team at Abbey Hotel for their assistance in getting the vaccination centre up and running."
On January 6, a programme of vaccination of frontline healthcare workers commenced at Roscommon University Hospital, with the vaccine offered to healthcare workers across the hospital, community and other healthcare workers in the county.
During January and February, a programme of vaccinations got underway across all residential care facilities in counties Roscommon and Mayo.
"At this point, we are confident that almost all healthcare workers in hospitals have received the vaccination (first dose) and many have now received their second dose," said Paul Hooton, Chief Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the Saolta Group which has overall responsibility for the vaccination programme across the West and North West.
"There are many thousands of frontline healthcare workers working outside of hospitals and over the last number of weeks we have been steadily nearing completion for this group, which includes workers from the public and private health services, those employed by the HSE and those employed by funded agencies."
Breda Crehan Roche, Chief Officer Community Health Care West added, "We are completing the vaccination programme across older people's long-term residential care facilities, both public and private, with less than 100 residents still to receive their second dose.
"Last week we completed the vaccination rollout to residential service users in Disability Services, and we plan to vaccinate those attending disability day services in the week commencing Monday next (March 29)."
She added that, to date, Community Healthcare West had administered 17,671 vaccines.
"I want to acknowledge the commitment of all the teams who worked so hard often 12 hours a day, over seven days a week, to ensure that vulnerable people are protected. Our vaccination teams are now also working alongside our colleagues in Saolta to continue to provide vaccinations to healthcare workers," said Ms Crehan Roche.