Major Covid vaccine hub planned for Athlone

There are plans to establish a major Covid-19 vaccination hub for the Midlands in Athlone, it has emerged.

Local councillor Tom Farrell, a member of the HSE's regional forum, said this week that the vaccination centre would be set up in Athlone IT and would have the capacity to vaccinate up to 30 or 40 people at the one time.

He said that, while there would be smaller vaccine distribution centres in other parts of the Midlands, the facility in Athlone would be the region's largest vaccination hub.

"I think this is very welcome news for the Midlands," said Cllr Farrell. "It's good to know that this will be happening in a heavily-populated area such as Athlone... it will be a boost for everybody."

The news emerged following a report in the Irish Times, earlier this week, which stated that the HSE was planning around 40 vaccination centres in total, including major facilities in "Cork, Waterford, Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Athlone."

The report said the HSE was also looking at setting up smaller centres in a number of other towns, including Mullingar and Longford.

Cllr Farrell said Athlone IT had been deemed the most suitable site for delivering a large-scale vaccination rollout in the region.

"The injection itself only takes 5 minutes, but people will then have to wait for 15 minutes before they leave, to ensure they have no adverse reaction. So it requires a large waiting area, and a large car park as well," he said.

The timeframe for setting up the centre in Athlone has not yet been confirmed. Cllr Farrell said he understood work was underway to put it in place "as soon as possible" and he was hoping it could be up and running by late March or early April.

A drive-through testing centre for Covid-19 was set up in the grounds of Athlone IT last April, but it closed in July following a decrease in demand for testing.

Speaking on RTE Radio last weekend, Paul Reid, the HSE's chief executive, said that the first three GP-led vaccination hubs were opening in Dublin, Cork and Galway and that "we are, in parallel, working on an overall plan for bigger vaccination centres across the country."

He said there would be "probably 40 of those (centres) across the country," some of which would have "30 to 50" vaccination places at a time, while others would have 10 to 20 places at a time.

"We have made really good progress about where we'll deploy vaccination centres all across the country," Mr Reid said on Sunday.

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines for frontline healthcare staff in hospitals, and for residents and staff in nursing homes, began last month.

The latest official figures released by the HSE stated that, as of Monday last, 154,900 people had received their first Covid-19 vaccine jab, while 88,453 people had been given both doses of the vaccine.