Clare vaccination centre to be temporarily relocated

THE Clare Covid-19 vaccination centre is relocating on a temporary basis from from Treacy’s West County Hotel to the grounds of Ennis Hospital.

Vaccinations at the former outpatients department in the hospital grounds will commence on this Saturday, November 20 and it is expected the centre will move back to the West County in early 2022.

Parking availability on the grounds of Ennis Hospital has improved since the relocation of the outpatients department to the Kilrush Road. Disabled parking is available at Ennis Hospital.

Patricia O’Gorman, Clinical Lead for the Area Vaccination Centres in the MidWest, said: “Our vaccination teams have to date delivered over 400,000 doses as part of this historic vaccination campaign. As society and the economy have reopened, we have had to secure a temporary new location for our Ennis centre with the agreement of our partners. We are grateful to the West County Hotel for their support over the course of vaccination campaign”

The current national requirement is that Covid-19 vaccination centres will remain in operation until at least the end of March 2022.

It is anticipated that the new centre at Ennis Hospital has the capacity to comfortably meet the demand for booster doses as the national vaccination campaign enters a new phase.

Vaccination teams have in recent days begun delivering booster vaccines to fully vaccinated people in the 60-69 age group and healthcare workers.

They continue to deliver additional doses to immunocompromised/ immunosuppressed patients in line with the national guidance and also to offer both Dose 1 and Dose 2 vaccinations at walk-in clinics who have yet to take up a vaccine.

Currently, people aged 60-69 in the Mid-West are being notified by text message about their booster appointments. The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has recommended a minimum time period of six months to have elapsed since the date of Dose 2 delivery before the booster dose is offered.

Booster dose appointments, scheduled from the information on the vaccination register, will be offered first to people with the earliest Dose 2 delivery dates. Regardless of which COVID-19 vaccine course people had previously, they will be offered a single booster dose of mRNA vaccine.