The Minister for Health has said an incident in which family members of Coombe Hospital staff received leftover Covid-19 vaccines on 8 January “should not have happened”.
The Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital said 16 prepared vaccine doses were left over that evening and “to ensure that vaccines were not wasted they were administered to family members of employees of the hospital”.
“Of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 and the remaining seven were of varying age. It would not be appropriate for the hospital to comment on the individuals involved,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.
A statement from the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said he was made aware of the situation last night.
“Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly continued, “Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets out a priority list for vaccination – and that’s currently for frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long term residential care facilities.”