‘Short planned closures’ at number of vaccination centres in Cork

There will be ‘short planned closures’ at a number of Covid-19 vaccination centres in Cork this week.

No vaccinations will be provided at the Páirc Uí Chaoimh vaccination centre on Friday or Saturday, or at the City Hall or Mallow centres on Thursday.

The vaccinations centres in Cork are run as a joint project between the South/South West Hospital Group and Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, with support and input from all parts of the health service including IT and Estates.

A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said that the centres have met and continue to meet their targets and that the planned closures this week will allow staff to take a break.

“Given the constant pressures on staff not just in the last few months, but since the pandemic began, this week gives us an opportunity to give staff in some centres a much-needed break. It also allows us to begin scheduling the second doses of Astra Zeneca currently due. Some of these vaccinations for healthcare workers will take place at centres, but others will take place in healthcare settings,” the spokesperson said.

Vaccinations for people in their 50s in Cork, who registered online to receive the vaccine, will be ‘substantially’ completed by the middle of this week, the spokesperson confirmed, and vaccination of people aged in their 40s has commenced.

“This is a fantastic achievement and is thanks to staff who have provided a constant and relentless pace of vaccinations at all centres, consistently going above and beyond. Staff have been acutely aware of the importance of the vaccination programme and they deserve huge credit for the numbers vaccinated at community vaccination centres across both counties [Cork and Kerry],” the spokesperson said.

”As we move forward to a new phase of the vaccination programme, we will continue to provide vaccinations to our communities in accordance with the vaccine available to us. Our centres are staffed, resourced and available and as vaccine is made available, we will offer it to the member of the public who have registered either on line or by phone,” the spokesperson added.