Porter is the first Clare resident vaccinated at Ennis Hospital

DAVID Crowe, a porter at Ennis Hospital, became the first Clare resident to be vaccinated at Ennis Hospital as part of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The arrival of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the Clare capital town on Wednesday has been welcomed by frontline healthcare workers, who have been challenged as never before throughout the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The first healthcare worker at the hospital to be vaccinated was Dr Mary Kennedy of the Medical Assessment Unit, who received her vaccine from staff nurse, Caroline Mulligan.

Dr Kennedy said: “This is a day we have all been waiting for in Ennis Hospital and the arrival of these vaccines gives us all hope that an end is in sight.”

The first batch of vaccines was delivered to Ennis Hospital on Wednesday morning, and it is planned initially to administer 50 doses per day to healthcare staff. For those who received vaccinations today, a second vaccination is required after a three-week period.

This is part of a regional vaccination programme that will see the vaccine administered to all staff in UL Hospitals’ Group, the HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare Organisation and other healthcare settings.

Vaccination at the region’s main acute hospital, University Hospital Limerick (UHL), got under way on Monday, and at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) on Tuesday.

Up to Tuesday evening, 490 staff in total had been vaccinated. By the end of the week, with plans at an advanced stage to start vaccination at Croom, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital, it is envisaged that at least 1,500 healthcare workers will have received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Dan Danaher