Updated 13 hours ago
Source: TheJournal.ie/YouTube
WATERFORD GREAT-GRANDMOTHER Margaret Power has been one of the first people over 85 years in Ireland to receive a Covid injection in the community.
The 93-year-old received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine from her local GP before 9am at Portree Primary Care Center.
The rollout of the national vaccination program for people over 85 was launched at some GPs this morning after vaccine stocks arrived yesterday.
Power told PA news agency: “So far I haven’t felt any good yet. It’s grand to have him over me.
“I was thinking about it and I couldn’t sleep thinking about what I was going to be. I didn’t know I was the first to get it here in the age group. ”
“It feels good,” she said. “I have to have a second one and then I’ll be protected.”
The pensioner said she is looking forward to spending more time with her family, especially her grandchildren, once she is fully vaccinated.
“They come to look in the window and shake me, throw kisses,” she said.
“I’m in touch with them all the time. I can see them on the records too. “
Her daughter Angela Power said the whole family was calling after her mother received the injection to see how it went.
“We are very happy for her,” she said. “It’s good to have you. She is in good health but by being locked in for the year she is doing very little now. She gets up in the day and sits watching TV for an evening with nowhere to go.
“She loved her old walk around the shops and hadn’t been in a shop for over a year.”
Power, as her mother’s primary caregiver, said she remains concerned that her mother will not be fully protected until she gets the injection herself.
She believes that the Government should treat home carers as the same if they were foster home workers on the vaccine priority list.
But she is now hopeful that the vaccines are being given to people in the community.
She said: “It’s a sign of hope and a sign that we hope to get back to whatever our routine is but with a little less fear of putting your nose outside the door. ”
James Welsh, 88, also received the Covid-19 injection from the Keogh Practice special vaccination center in Portree this morning.
James Welsh, aged 88, after receiving an injection of the Pfizer vaccine
Source: Neil Carson / PA Photos
The pensioner said he was “very happy” to be vaccinated because he had been locked in the house since being locked up.
“I walk around the garden, that’s all you could do,” he said.
97-year-old Josie Power also made her way to the center to receive the injection this morning with her daughter Joan.
The local woman, who lives alone, said she was happy to have the vaccine.
“It didn’t bother me,” she said.
“I was delighted to achieve it. It feels fine. ”
Dr Neil Macnamara was one of seven GPs from Keogh Pharmacy who administered the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday to around 300 patients aged 85 to 104.
The multi-location practice, which involves around 2,700 patients over the age of 70, has set up a dedicated Covid-19 clinic to deliver the vaccines at the HSE primary care center in Portree.
Dr Macnamara said: “This is a very exciting day. Our staff are very happy.
“It was one of those nights where I didn’t sleep particularly well. I woke up at three in the morning – I was so happy to get in.
“We have lived through the past years in difficult times but I don’t think anyone has experienced the difficulties of this particular age group and the constraints on their freedom. and the impact they have had on mental health and physical wellbeing. ”
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“It’s not often you have a day like this in general practice,” he said.
“Often a lot of sad stories come in. There are a lot of mental health problems, a lot of trauma, a lot of people who are in pain and suffering but this is one of those days that everyone is coming in and they are so happy to be the seo.
“It is a great honor to be able to do this.”
Around 13,500 people over the age of 85 are expected to receive the first dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna vaccine by the end of the week.
The jobs will be provided at local GP surgeries and at 37 vaccination centers over the next three weeks.
All people over 70 are expected to receive their first dose by mid-April and their second dose by mid-May.