The Covid-19 vaccination centre at the Galway Racecourse will continue to operate during the Galway Races but will offer a reduced service for the duration of the annual summer festival which begins on July 26.
Tony Canavan, the chief executive of the Saolta University Health Care Group, which runs the seven public hospitals in the west and north-west and is also responsible for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in centres in Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny, Castlebar, and Carrick-on-Shannon, said during this period the group hopes to ramp-up activity at its vaccination centres in Clifden, Castlebar, and Roscommon.
He said the racecourse management deserved “great credit” for facilitating the continuation of the vaccine programme during the races.
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'Scaling down'
“We’ll be staying in the racecourse for race week and will almost certainly be scaling down capacity,” the Saolta boss told this newspaper. This reduction in service will be related to the number of people allowed attend the races daily, he said.
It was announced on Wednesday that this will be limited to 1,000 spectators per day, a figure local racing management has been reported as saying was “extremely disappointing” for horse racing fans.
Mr Canavan [pictured below] said Saolta executives met on Monday to discuss the overall progress of the vaccination programme.“The most important thing for us was the agreement to stay on [the racecourse] site. Great credit is due to the racecourse management.”
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He stated that while its vaccination service there would be reduced during race week, other local centres would be increasing their numbers. “We will maximise the capacity available [in Ballybrit] and we will look at seeing more [people] in Clifden, Castlebar, and Roscommon.”
There are 50 vaccination booths at the racecourse, 45 of which are in use. He said if the number of spectators attending the races is significant, about 25 booths will be open.
Eighty people were vaccinated at the satellite vaccination centre in Clifden, which opened at the local community school last week, on its first day in operation. It is open one to two days a week and vaccinates about 100 people a day. It is Saolta’s third satellite vaccination centre, the others are in Carrick-on-Shannon in Co Leitrim and in Cardonagh in Co Donegal.
Connemara facility
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The Connemara facility provides first dose vaccines to people in West Galway/Connemara who register online. Anyone who receives their first dose in Clifden will automatically be called back for a second dose, after the appropriate dose interval.
The new centre will also run clinics to administer second vaccine doses for some people who received their first vaccine in Ballybrit. People who would like to have their second dose in Clifden should call (086 ) 0360942 from 10am to 2pm, Monday to Friday. This helpline is for people who got their first vaccine in Ballybrit and would like to get their second one in Clifden. For other vaccine queries contact 1800 700 700.
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Mr Canavan said the local vaccination programme, involving eight centres in the Saolta group, together with GP, pharmacy, ambulance, and community healthcare organisation-led vaccination services, is making significant progress.
“It is very successful because of the collaborative approach. There are vaccines being done by GPs, now pharmacies have started, and the national ambulance service continues to vaccinate some people, mainly older people, in their own homes. Two community healthcare organisations are also doing vaccines for people with disabilities and hard-to-reach groups.” These are older people and members of the Traveller and Roma communities.
