The Government has published a list of 15 provisional vaccine allocation groups

James Fenton

Ireland woke up this morning to the news that the world’s first Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine had been received by a 90-year-old grandmother from Enniskillen.

Margaret Keenan received the jab at University Hospital Coventry on the same morning that Joanna Sloane, a Sister in the Royal Victoria Hospital Emergency Department in Belfast, became the first person to get the vaccine on the island of Ireland. Both recipients will need return in 21 days time to receive the second dose of the vaccine, which then requires an additional week to reach the full height of its immunity suppression.

Following on from this morning’s developments, the Irish Government has published its list of ‘Provisional Vaccine Allocation Groups’, which is described as a ‘priority list of groups for vaccination once a safe and effective vaccine(s) has received authorisation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).’

The list was endorsed by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) before being approved by the Government. The provisional order of groups that will receive the Covid-19 vaccine in the Republic of Ireland is as follows:

1	People aged 65 years and older who are residents of long-term care facilities (likely to include all staff and residents on site)
2	Frontline healthcare workers
3	People aged 70 and older
4	Other healthcare workers not in direct patient contact
5	People aged 65-69
6	Key workers
7	People aged 18-64 with certain medical conditions
8	Residents of long-term care facilities aged 18-64
9	People aged 18-64 living or working in crowded settings
10	Key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure
11	People working in education sector
12	People aged 55-64
13	Other workers in occupations important to the functioning of society
14	Other people aged 18-54
15	People aged under 18 and pregnant women

In the official Government document, each group is accompanied by a rationale and ethical principles outlining why it has been allocated its place in the list. For example, the rationale for people aged over 65 or older who are residents of long-term care facilities is that they are ‘at greatest risk of severe illness and death. In Ireland, in the first wave of COVID-19, 56% of deaths occurred in this setting.’

Meanwhile, frontline healthcare workers are said to be ‘at very high or high risk of exposure and/or transmission. In the first wave over 30% cases were in healthcare workers.’

You can read the list in full, as well as the reasons behind each entry, via this link.