All people living on the Islands off Galway must be vaccinated on the same visit as it makes "no sense" to carry out a "handful of vaccinations", and still leave the rest of the community exposed to Covid-19.
This is the view of Fine Gael Galway senator, Seán Kyne, who said the HSE must vaccinate all island residents against Covid-19 on the same visit, rather than making multiple trips to vaccinate different sections of what are very small populations.
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If the protocol from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee was to be followed to the letter, only those aged 70 and over would be immunised. At that, only those aged over 85 would be considered first. This could involve several trips where only a tiny handful of people would actually be vaccinated.
Sen Kyne said this "would not make sense from a practical point of view" and has called for island communities to be exempt from the roll out planned for the mainland.
Secon vaccination centre needed
Sen Kyne also voiced concern regarding the one vaccination centre only for Galway, and he has called on the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly to establish a vaccination centre in Connemara. "This would ease the burden for travel from west Connemara," he said, "and avoid the need for unnecessary travel to the city."
