First Irish Vaccinations Give as Role Out Announced

The first vaccinations have begun in Northern Ireland as the UK government gave its approval of the vaccinations. The first mobile team from Belfast Health and Social Care Trust vaccinated residents and staff at Palmerston Care Home in Sydenham, yesterday. The intention is to provide the vaccine to all care homes across Northern Ireland in the coming weeks. The Irish government has announced it's provisional vaccine allocation groups. The COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Strategy will begin providing the vaccination as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the vaccine. The first to be inoculated with the vaccine will be those over the age of 65 who are residents of long-term care facilities, next to get the vaccine will be front-line healthcare workers, followed by people over the age of 70.

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The Irish government's COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Strategy will be rolled out to the following groups over the next year.

1	People aged 65 years and older who are residents of long-term care facilities (likely to include all staff and residents on site)
2	Frontline healthcare workers
3	People aged 70 and older
4	Other healthcare workers not in direct patient contact
5	People aged 65-69
6	Key workers
7	People aged 18-64 with certain medical conditions
8	Residents of long-term care facilities aged 18-64
9	People aged 18-64 living or working in crowded settings
10	Key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure
11	People working in education sector
12	People aged 55-64
13	Other workers in occupations important to the functioning of society
14	Other people aged 18-54
15	People aged under 18 and pregnant women