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The Government has begun the classification of “essential” workers for the purposes of vaccination, with individual departments asked to submit different categories of workers that may be given priority access to doses.
It comes as official advisers on vaccination were putting the finishing touches to a review of the State’s prioritisation for Covid-19 shots, after the Government requested that people with weak immune systems be prioritised.
It is understood that individual departments were asked to submit lists of professions and other groups in their areas who they would deem as essential earlier this week.
The Department of Health has been sent the lists for the project, which is thought to relate to the 10th category on the State’s vaccine priority list – those who are classed as key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure.
This category would be among the first groups to be vaccinated once healthcare workers and older people are completed. There is also a group of key workers, ranked number six in the vaccination programme, but sources suggested this group may be quite small as it will be focused on those working on the vaccination programme.
Many of those working directly on vaccinations, including healthcare workers in the acute hospital system, general practitioners and administration staff, will have been vaccinated in earlier categories.
Sources suggested that category six could include high-ranking Government and Health Service Executive officials, and potentially some Ministers, as well as those involved in transportation and other logistical supports for the campaign. However, no final decisions have been taken.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said that it, along with the HSE, will consider those workers to be vaccinated under group six. She confirmed that “in relation to key workers in group 10, work has commenced on defining these workers”.
Priority list
It comes as the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) prepared new advice for Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on who should be prioritised to receive Covid-19 vaccines.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil this week that Mr Donnelly had written to the committee to examine the sequencing of the list of the 15 groups in order of priority for receiving the vaccine.
“My understanding is that Niac will be responding today in terms of the sequencing of those who, in Niac’s view, would be prioritised in relation to vaccinations.” He said the Government asked Niac to “consider the situation because we are of the view that those who are immunosuppressed or have particular conditions, like Parkinson’s disease and cystic fibrosis, should be prioritised”.
He was responding to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who called for family carers to be “given their place as part of this reconfiguration”.
She called for clarity for family carers that they would be prioritised in the vaccination programme, adding that it was a “punch in the stomach” for carers to be told they would have to wait to be vaccinated along with the general population.
Medical conditions
Political sources said they expected the review would, in the first instance, focus on providing further guidance on the prioritisation of those with certain medical diagnoses which may make them vulnerable to adverse effects of infection.
Currently, people with “certain medical conditions” are covered in category seven, with sources suggesting the review could provide further advice on which conditions are within that category.
They then may be considered for quicker access to vaccination – for example, lung diseases which may render someone more vulnerable to adverse affects of Covid-19 infection than those with other chronic conditions.
However, as Niac is an independent body, the review may be more wide-ranging, sources said.