Almost 1,000 get vaccines in local hub in first three days

The pace of the local Covid-19 vaccine roll-out looks set to pick up in the days and weeks ahead, with almost 1,000 people given jabs at the new vaccination centre in the Tullamore Court Hotel during its first three days of operation this week.

The long-awaited opening of the county's vaccination hub took place on the Bank Holiday Monday, and 334 Covid vaccines were administered that day.

A HSE spokesperson told the Offaly Independent that a further 400 vaccinations were given at the centre on Tuesday, along with 240 on Wednesday.

In total, more than 3,600 jabs were administered at HSE vaccination centres in Athlone, Portlaoise and Tullamore on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Just over half of these (1,833) were given at the region's largest centre, in the Athlone IT International Arena.

Cllr Danny Owens, Cathaoirleach of Tullamore Municipal District, described the opening of the centre in the town this week as a very positive development.

"It's going to help to grow the amount of people who have vaccines received, and that can only be good," said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

"There are a lot of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s wondering when it will come around to them, and this now means that it's going to be rolled out quicker.

"Hopefully it will help us to reach our targets by the end of June, and get the country back up and running again."

He added that the location of the hotel made it a good choice for use as a vaccination centre for people throughtout Offaly.

"It's very convenient and it's a big, open plan hotel so it should be very suitable for this job," he remarked.

Meanwhile, a Covid-19 pop-up test centre which was set up in Edenderry has now closed after testing 343 people for the virus over a three-day period.

The centre opened in the car park of Scoil Bhride Primary School on Sunday.