Pharmacists say they have been “left in the dark” by the Department of Health after offering to roll out vaccines that were earmarked for the over-70s to other cohorts in the community.
A plan to “work in tandem” – with pharmacists using AstraZeneca and GPs administering Moderna and Pfizer – would jump-start efforts to vaccinate in bigger numbers, said Eoghan Hanly, president of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU).
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has recommended that AstraZeneca should not be used to vaccinate people aged 70 and over.
Last week more than 21,000 doses of the AstraZeneca
vaccine, originally earmarked for administration by GPs to the over-70s, arrived in the country.