As Ireland changes up its vaccine rollout plan – here’s who other EU nations are prioritising

Strategies vary across Europe in terms of how the Covid-19 vaccine is being rolled out, but age and vulnerability remain the driving forces.

Controversy erupted here this week when the Government announced an overhaul of the vaccine priority list, moving to an age-based roll-out system after vulnerable groups have been vaccinated.

Teachers, special needs assistants and gardaí reacted angrily to the news that they were being pushed down the vaccine priority list.

A new report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published this week showed that due to the limited availability of Covid-19 vaccines at the start of vaccination campaigns, most countries opted to prioritise vaccination for those individuals most at risk of severe disease, including the elderly and residents in long-term care facilities, as well as healthcare workers.

The report said that vaccination phases differ by country with a range of two to 16 different phases. Ireland has divided its programme into nine phases.

Countries have made tweaks to their plans. In fact, by March 22, 17 countries had adjusted their original plans to administer vaccines to target groups.

Germany moved kindergarden and primary school teachers and teachers at schools for children with special needs up its priority list, from the third to second priority list. Malta also made adjustments to include workers in the education system higher up in its vaccination porgramme. In Portugal, teachers, education personnel and other priority workers were added to the priority groups for vaccination.

The ECDC report ‘Overview of the implementation of Covid-19 vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment plans in the EU/EEA’ gives a broad overview of what is happening in other countries. The elderly were being prioritised by all 25 countries which it compiled information on, but with various lower-age cut-offs.

It said that adults with co-morbidities – meaning more than one illness or disease – were currently being vaccinated in 15 countries (60pc). In 22 countries (88pc), other groups including essential public service workers other than health, including response and rescue units, police, firefighters, coast guard, border guard, people with disabilities, and staff in schools and other childcare facilities were also prioritised for vaccination.

A look at how some other countries were rolling out their vaccination schedule reveals:

BELGIUM

Phase 1A began on January 5 this year, and it involved residents and staff in nursing homes, and healthcare workers. Phase 1B began in March, addressing people aged 65 and older, people aged 45 years and older at risk, and those fulfilling ‘essential’ social or economic functions.

CROATIA

The schedule saw it beginning the first phase with the elderly and staff in long-term care facilities, and healthcare workers, people working with Covid-19 patients – for instance in intensive care unit settings and at testing sites. Their phase two schedule listed elderly people aged 65 and over and adults with chronic diseases under the age of 65, before moving to the rest of the population for phase three.

CYPRUS

Cyprus saw phase one beginning with residents and staff of long-term care facilities and health care workers. The country moved to phase two on January 26, targeting people over 80 for vaccination, with priority given to vulnerable groups. Phase three began in February, targeting people over the age of 75 with priority for vulnerable groups. Phase four saw people at high risk of severe disease on the schedule, and phase five saw people in primary healthcare centres and other health professionals, and also prisoners vaccinated. Phase six will see the ret of the population vaccinated according to age.

ITALY

Italy put healthcare workers, residents and staff of long-term facilities for the elderly, and elderly people over the age of 80 at the top of its phase one priority list. The second phase, which is underway, will target six different categories; extremely vulnerable people; people aged between 75 and 79; people aged between 70 and 74; people with increased clinical risk if they contracted Covid-19 aged between 16 and 69; and people aged 18-54. AstraZeneca's vaccine can be administered to school and university staff, to members of the army and police, and in at-risk settings, such as prisons and people working in essential services.

NETHERLANDS

Phase one saw elderly healthcare staff and people living in elderly care, people over the age of 60 and nurses delivering home-based care among those being prioritised. Phase two sees people between 18 and 60 years with certain underlying medical conditions being vaccinated. Phase three moves to other healthcare staff and then phase four will move to people aged between 18 and 60 years.

It comes as a separate report from UNESCO released last week showed that only 17 countries out of 150 had prioritised teachers within the first group for vaccination, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Another 19 countries allocated teachers to the second priority group to be vaccinated, after health workers and highly vulnerable populations. UNESCO has urged all countries to prioritise teachers in national Covid-19 vaccine roll-out plans to ensure education can continue safely and schools remain open.

Online Editors