Vaccine uptake ‘high’ and enthusiastic among healthcare workers – HSE

The HSE has told the Medical Independent (MI) that uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine by doctors and other healthcare workers (HCWs) was  “high” and enthusiastic so far.

Asked whether there has been any challenge with ‘vaccine hesitancy’ among HCWs, the HSE spokesperson said it was rather the limited number of dosages available that was the biggest challenge.

“With the rollout of safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19, our experience to date is that uptake is high, reflecting enthusiasm among all healthcare workers,” the HSE spokesperson told MI.

“At this point in time, our principal challenge is the limited numbers of vaccine doses available.”

Over  70,000 vaccines have been delivered to frontline healthcare workers according to the Executive.

To date vaccine provision has been directed towards the top two tiers of the Government’s provisional vaccine allocation groups published in December

The top two tiers are people aged 65 years and older who are residents of long-term care facilities (likely to include all staff and residents on site) and frontline healthcare workers.

In other vaccine news according to the Health Products Regulatory Authority’s (HPRA) first safety update providing an overview of the national reporting experience of Covid-19 vaccines up to the 18 January a total of  257 reports of suspected side effects were notified to the Authority.

The cumulative total doses administered of Covid-19 vaccines was reported as 77,303(dose 1) up to 13 January.

“Of the reports notified to the HPRA, the most commonly reported suspected side effects are in line with those typically associated with vaccination, including the types of side effects described in Covid-19 vaccine product information,” according to the update.

“National reporting experience to date supports the favourable assessment that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines outweigh any risks.”

The HPRA said that it receives reports based on suspicion that an adverse experience may be associated with vaccination.

“This does not mean the vaccine caused the adverse experience. As such, these are referred to as ‘suspected’ side effects.”

A full copy of the HPRA safety update can be found on its homepage https://www.hpra.ie/