Vaccine Numbers Log Thread

I want the pub and the matches. And the gym. And the odd holiday. Is that too much to ask in a free country?

Life partner lined up for an AZ first dose on Sunday ( :scream: I know, they are actually doing this of a weekend), I’ll try and keep the forum abreast of any blood clots.

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I think so, yes.

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N Ireland waives sanctions on Republic residents seeking Covid jabs

Irish people with NHS cards able to get vaccinated in North with doctors pushing for ‘all-island’ approach

Northern Ireland is imposing no sanctions on residents of the Republic who cross the border to get coronavirus jabs months before they would be eligible, as doctors push for an “all island” approach to vaccinations to drive down infection rates. The North’s vaccine programme has become increasingly attractive to people south of the border after the region became the first in the UK to open appointments to all over-50s. The Republic is still inoculating the over-70s and postponed 30,000 appointments this week after suspending use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on safety grounds.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Health said anyone who was vaccinated “must be entitled to receive healthcare in Northern Ireland and be registered with a GP in Northern Ireland . . . or be employed as a healthcare worker in Northern Ireland”. Asked about penalties for those able to book without meeting the eligibility criteria, based on having an old healthcare number from previous residency in the UK, the department said there were “none”. The North had delivered first shots to almost 34 per cent of its population by March 16. The Republic had vaccinated 9.4 per cent of its population by the same date after its rollout was beset by delays to supplies.

Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has warned that the pace of vaccination in the Republic was a “concern” and argued for the UK to offer surplus doses to the Republic to prevent unvaccinated people from coming up to the North since “they can carry Covid with them”. One man living in Donegal, a Republic of Ireland county across the border from Northern Ireland’s County Derry, described how he was able to use an NHS number from once working in England to secure an appointment at a central vaccination site in Belfast earlier this week. So was his wife. “We’re still not absolutely sure what we’re doing is right and we haven’t told people,” added the man, who is in his early 50s. His wife is medically vulnerable, so is theoretically in the next group in the Republic, but “God knows when they’ll get that done”. “I can understand why people are doing it,” said Donegal general practitioner Denis McCauley, who heads the Irish Medical Organisation’s GP committee, and said people had told him they had received the vaccine in the North. “If you ask me what’s the best vaccine, it’s the first one that you can get. I’m not going to judge anybody who has the ability to get a vaccine.”

Official figures showed there were more than 2m patients in Northern Ireland in 2020 and fewer than 1.9m residents. Much of the difference is people living in the Republic attracted to the North’s free GP visits and other benefits of NHS care.

“It’s such a big project, it’s never going to be completely watertight,” said Dr Alan Stout, chair of the British Medical Association GPs’ committee, referring to people’s ability to find loopholes in Northern Ireland’s vaccination eligibility rules. “I would imagine people can get around them if they’re determined to.”

McCauley, who like Stout favours an all-island approach to vaccination, pointed out that infection rates in Donegal, for example, tracked Northern Ireland’s national trends more closely than those in the Republic. “The thing you have to realise is that we’re part of Ulster, part of the Republic of Ireland, but from a pandemic point of view, we’re probably more associated with Northern Ireland . . . That’s the starting point.”

Colm Gildernew, chair of the Northern Ireland assembly’s health committee and Sinn Féin health spokesperson, said he was “acutely aware” of the need for an all-island approach to vaccination since “the virus does not recognise borders”.

“Vaccinating those who hold NHS and national insurance numbers should be automatic but the effort should not be limited to them,” he said, arguing the case for NI vaccinations for “those who work in all settings [in the North] — carers, nurses, teachers and others who work in close contact situations” even if they live in the Republic. “[That] would be a sensible approach if we are serious about combating this virus and having our communities emerge to return to normal,” he said.

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Thats great news. Kudos to our northern brethern for their solidarity.

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Arlene, Arlene, Arlene :fist:t2:

That’s a slap in the face for the TFK lads giving out about the vaccine rollout.

There’d be “lads on here” who’d be happier if no vaccines were administered so they could give out about it.

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They’re in a tailspin now. They don’t know what to give out about next.

Have you considered emigration mate? You seem to really hate your homeland

Could you please stop schooling him, it’s unfair and at this stage you should be charging him.

In your face Poland!

What an absolutely pathetic poster you are.

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Hungary are absolutely flying it in the vaccine doses.

You need to catch a hold of yourself. It is rather unbecoming the route you have taken here.

I think you latching onto other posters and engaging in propaganda shows you for the village idiot you are.

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I’m the idiot, okay :smile:

Ireland killing less and vaccinating more than the Swedish but… Sweden, Sweden, Sweden.

Arlene for Taoiseach.