Pharmacy chain Boots has confirmed that it will start to offer Covid-19 vaccines from this week.
The life saving jabs will be available in 81 Boots pharmacies.
Caoimhe McAuley, director of pharmacy and superintendent pharmacist at Boots Ireland, said she was “delighted” the Boots pharmacy network would begin the vital work of administering Covid-19 vaccines.
She added: “Our experience in delivering vaccinations has been well established through the provision of the flu, pneumococcal, shingles and travel vaccinations. We look forward to applying this expertise and experience to vaccinating people against Covid-19 as the country continues to fight the pandemic.”
The portal is currently only open to those who are eligible to receive the vaccine and they have asked that people do not fill out the application until their time comes.
Their website reads: "Whilst all adults in Ireland are encouraged to get a COVID-19 vaccine, we can only provide the vaccination service to those in one of the groups currently being vaccinated against COVID-19 through a pharmacy.
"If you are not in one of the groups above, please do not book an appointment as it will be cancelled. If you attend for an appointment, we will always check eligibility at this stage. Ineligible patients will not be vaccinated"
To apply simply head to the portal here, click on ‘get started’ and complete their pre-consultation form, at the end of which they will be able to book their appointment and attend for vaccination.
Other pharmacies will also start to offer the single-shot Johnson and Johnson COVID vaccine to the over 50s from today.
Deliveries of around 60,000 vaccines are expected at around 1,300 participating pharmacies.
Darragh O’Loughlin, chief executive of the Irish Pharmacy Union, told Newstalk Breakfast Weekends: “The Janssen, or Johnson and Johnson vaccine, with be delivered to 700 or 800 pharmacies around the country in the coming days and those will be available for anyone over the age of 50 who hasn’t already been vaccinated, whether or not they registered on the HSE portal.
“Then in a couple of weeks, a smaller number of pharmacies, mostly those that are not too close to vaccination centres, will have the Pfizer vaccine and they’ll be using that in the same way as the vaccination centres and GPs as part of the national vaccination programme.”
