Vaccination centres will be ready to the general public in the coming weeks.

Centres will open at Treacy’s West County Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel and Abbey Court Hotel under the joint governance of UL Hospitals Group and HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare to vaccinate the public of Clare, Limerick and Tipperary respectively.

Healthcare workers have been vaccinated at the Radisson Blu Hotel since Wednesday (March 3rd). A number of Clare frontline workers have been administered with the jab at the Meelick facility. It holds the biggest booth capacity (30) of the three hotels followed by the West County (20) and the Abbey Court (15).

A collective total of 6,000 doses per day will be delivered when the three centres begin to operate at maximum capacity. The official opening dates for the centres will be finalised in the context of vaccine supply, clinical prioritisation and sequencing, and recruitment for the multi-disciplinary teams required to provide the service, and which will include vaccinators, pharmacists, administration, ICT and support staff.

Prof Paul Burke, UL Hospitals Group’s Chief Academic Officer and the Group Lead for the Mid-West Vaccination Centres described the drive to vaccinate the population as “truly historic”. He stated, “This has given everybody concerned great hope and added motivation to continue with the vaccination programme”.

“A standard template has been developed for these centres and the space requirement is very significant to accommodate the registration desks, vaccination booths and observation areas, along with all the ancillary spaces needed to cater for the throughput that can hopefully be achieved once the vaccines become available in sufficient quantities. We also had to consider the significant traffic management issues and the availability of car parking,” Joe Hoare, Assistant National Director Estates explained.