The national vaccination effort ramps up today with around 750 pharmacies - 23 in Waterford - providing coronavirus jabs to people aged 18 to 34.
They will be getting the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine which provides full protection against Covid-19 after just one shot.
From next week, vaccination centres will also be offering the AstraZeneca jab to 18 to 34-year-olds.
County Waterford-based pharmacist Niall Mulligan, of the Mulligan’s Pharmacy group which has 12 pharmacies in the county says they have been inundated with people trying to secure an appointment:
"On our Mulligans pharmacy website, we have a booking service and as of yesterday (Sunday) we had 3,500 people registered. We don't have that amount of vaccine and we're not prepared with staff being able to provide a pharmacy service in store and provide a dispensary service at the same time.
"So we're looking to amalgamate everything into a central Waterford clinic so we can provide a service to all our patients as well as vaccinating at a greater rate the number of young people who want to be vaccinated".
Niall says the government announcement last week that pharmacies would begin offering the service from today took everyone by surprise. They have been working hard to implement a system in order to cater to the demand for Covid-19 inoculations as well as continuing with their other services. A mini-vaccination centre is being set up, and the pharmacy chain hopes to begin a soft roll-out of that this afternoon (Monday).
No vaccine hesitancy
The Irish Pharmacy Union said they have received 10 calls for every available vaccine from people in the 18-34 age range.
They also said there is no sign of vaccine hesitancy among the younger age group.
Mr O'Loughlin said due to a shortage in supplies, some people may have to wait to get their jab.
He told Newstalk yesterday: “I would say there is about 10 enquiries for every vaccine that's available, so unfortunately a lot of people won't get an appointment in the first tranche but people who have left their name and number with a pharmacy can be assured that as more vaccines become available.
"As the HSE distributes more vaccines out to pharmacies, a pharmacy will get in touch with them and offer them an appointment as soon as possible.”
He says only those that were already distributing the jabs to older people will have supplies from this morning.
“Pharmacies had some vaccines in stock because they had been using it on the over-50s, the next delivery of vaccines to pharmacies won't be until some time between Wednesday and Friday of this week coming,” Mr O'Loughlin explained.
For a list of all participating pharmacies in Waterford, check out this link:
https://www2.hse.ie/apps/services/pharmaciesservicelist.aspx
To hear what Niall Mulligan had to say in full, listen back here:
main pic courtesy of RTE
