A CORK healthcare worker involved in residential vaccination in North Cork has commended the teams responsible for rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine to those most vulnerable.

Speaking at the vaccination centre at Mallow GAA Club on Tuesday, Deputy Vaccination Lead Anne Marie O’Gorman said that the mass vaccination centre is the next phase of the national rollout of the programme which commenced in January with the inocculation of frontline workers and those in nursing homes.

In North Cork, special teams have vaccinated over 5,000 people in the last 12 weeks, including staff and residents at nursing homes and mental health and disability clients.

Ms O’Gorman said that the teams, comprised of community nurses, admin and medical staff, have done “an absolutely tremendous job dealing with the vagaries and the opportunities and challenges that present when you go into a nursing home”. She said that it was particularly heartwarming to see the joy that receiving the jab brought to so many people.

“Like the 100-year-old woman who told her vaccinator when she got the Covid vaccine that it was like all her Christmases had come together and she was just absolutely delighted that she felt finally free of Covid.

“I think the vaccination has given everybody the opportunity to hugely lessen the impact of any Covid infection on their lives so they can get on and resume some sort of normality again in their lives,” Ms O’Gorman added.

She said that vaccination has made a huge difference in the lives of those in nursing homes who are not only protected against Covid-19 but who can now see their loved ones again. “There’s multiple staff who have gone way above and beyond in terms of availability to do the vaccination.

“Also their colleagues on the ground who have been maintaining service to the community in North Cork - obviously when their colleagues are gone to vaccinate, there are less people on the ground so as well as doing the vaccination programme we’ve also been able to maintain a service to the population of North Cork as well so I think that is a massive feat,” she said.