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The head of the Health Service Executive has said 1.1 million Covid-19 vaccines will be delivered to Ireland in the first three months of the year, the fourth time the forecast has been reduced.
Up to 17 changes have been made to the vaccine rollout, thereby impacting on the number of doses administered, HSE chief executive Paul Reid told the Oireachtas health committee. Between changes to the operating plan, deliveries, prioritisation of groups and sequencing of patients, there have been 15 to 17 alterations to the plan, he said.
Acknowledging “drift” in the forecast number of doses to be delivered to Ireland, Mr Reid said about 1.1-1.2 million vaccines will be supplied by the end of this month or the start of April, with 175,000 to arrive on the last day of the month.
He said Ireland would receive 600,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson&Johnson vaccine in the second quarter, assuming it was approved by the European Medicines Agency later this week. However, supplies would be “back-ended”, with “smaller numbers” coming in April.
An original figure of 1.7 million doses was based on advance purchase agreements with manufacturers, this was then reduced to a forecast of 1.4 million and then lowered again to 1.24 million, he said.
Supply issues have caused “high levels of frustration” for the HSE in the first three months of the rollout, Mr Reid acknowledged.
“It was a very frustrating quarter on supply lines,” he said, with the supply of Moderna and AstraZeneca doses “unstable”.
There should be greater predictability in supplies during the second quarter of the year, though there may be supply “swings and roundabouts”, he added.
Mr Reid said between 500 and 750 over-85s, attending 30 GP practices, have yet to receive their first dose, but deliveries for these would take place during the week.
House-bound older patients will also receive their vaccination this week from ambulance crew.
Arrangements are also being made for the vaccination of older patients in hospital. Mr Reid said this was “tricky” because the patients may be in hospital for a short time and decisions had to be made where to administer the second dose. This will probably be done in hospital.
There were 397 Covid-19 patients in hospital this morning, including 101 in intensive care.