The HSE has announced today that vaccination for those in cohort 4 ‘very high risk’ from COVID-19, is to commence from next week, 8th March.

The HSE is presently in consultation with hospital centres to organise the logistics for the cohort 4 vaccination programme and has indicated it will be a more complex operation than previous vaccinations because of the diversity of diseases within the very high risk cohort, including those with certain cancer treatments, pre and post transplant patients and those with more severe forms of respiratory diseases including cystic fibrosis.

While broadly welcoming this significant development, CFI continues to advocate as we have from the outset that it would surely make sense that all people with CF are vaccinated together from a logistics perspective because of the relatively small numbers of people involved and ease of contacting everyone. There is significantly less than 1,000 people with cystic fibrosis who would be eligible for vaccination (aged 16 and over) in Ireland and everyone with CF could be vaccinated very quickly.  

Please note that it is our understanding that individuals with cystic fibrosis will be contacted for a vaccination slot.

We will continue to update members as more information becomes available.