People over the age of 65 living in long-term care and healthcare workers working directly with patients will be among the first people in Ireland to receive Covid-19 vaccines, according to provisional plans published by the government. CFI is currently seeking clarification of what this will mean in practice and to also urge that greater prioritisation could be given to those with certain medical conditions, including those with CF.

CFI notes that people aged 18-64 with certain medical conditions are presently 7th in a list of 15 groups, though whether this means any delay in vaccination is still unclear.

Following consideration of proposals put together by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee and the Department of Health, cabinet approved the provisional list of priority groups, see summary below or visit www.gov.ie for full details.

The vaccine will be free of charge for all recipients.

Please note that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) must approve these vaccines before their use in Ireland (likely before the end of December.

It is likely that the EMA will consider whether the vaccines can be extended to people for under 18 years of age early in the new year. It is of course important that the EMA has the data that shows that medications are safe for children and teenagers before this happens, but all the indications so fare are positive.

In short, at present all those aged under 18 are not eligible for the vaccines but this is likely to change early in 2021 depending on the outcomes of further clinical testing of the vaccines on young people. The vaccines have been tested on some people who are post-transplant, and we will further update you once we have received further information for this group.

CFI will provide further updates on this issue.

This is the provisional order in which people in Ireland will be vaccinated against COVID-19