The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called for an urgent meeting with the HSE to discuss the implications for second dose vaccinations of healthcare workers.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said her members have always supported the precautionary principle and if there are issues about receiving a second dose of AstraZeneca that need to be clarified then they want that done.She said she wants to have up-to-date information about the matter to give to her members today.About 150,000 healthcare workers have yet to receive the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine that would provide them with full protection against the virus.In the main, it is a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine they are due to receive.
There are “serious concerns” about the supply of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) Covid-19 vaccine, the Minister for Health has told the Dáil.
He said the country was scheduled to receive 600,000 doses of the J&J vaccine by the end of June, but the best case scenario was that there would be 235,000 vaccines and a worst case scenario was that there would be 60,000.
Overall, 1.42 million Pfizer, 365,000 AstraZeneca, 176,000 Moderna and 476,000 Johnson & Johnson doses were planned, but there were question marks over both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.