Island residents should be given group vaccinations in their communities rather than on the mainland, Éamon Ó Cuív has said.
As Times.ie reports today, the Galway West Fianna Fáil TD, who was minister for rural and Gaeltacht affairs from 2002 to 2010, said islanders should be treated as cohorts for “logistical and safety reasons”, he said.
The issue was raised by Aran island general practitioner (GP) Dr Marion Broderick who said that there were serious risks in asking elderly island residents to travel to the mainland if they were expected to.
There are about 3,000 residents on 20 inhabited offshore islands around the coast.
Many islands have a high proportion of elderly and vulnerable residents, most of whom have not left the islands since the first lockdown last March, Dr Broderick pointed out.
Due mainly to severe limitations on travel, there have been only isolated cases of the virus on most islands - apart from Mayo’s Clare island where about 20 positive cases were reported last month.
Residents in the Aran island community nursing home on Inis Mór have received their first round of vaccines, but the island also has over 100 residents aged over 70.
Mr Ó Cuív said he had informed the Health Service Executive (HSE) that it “does not make sense to revisit such an inconvenient location several times, for small numbers each time, as the vaccine is rolled out to different age cohorts and risk- groups in turn”.
He said there were also weather factors in relation to sea travel at this time of year, and ferry sailings are limited in the winter season.
Read more on Times.ie here