The College Health Service at Trinity has been providing Covid 19 vaccines and boosters to staff and students, commencing initially in March 2021 offsite at the Helix and subsequently from April to June on Campus at Trinity..
In response to the "call to arms" by the Minister for Health to GPs, where he asked GPs to prioritise Booster vaccination over routine GP care, a first week of Booster doses was delivered in the second week of January, and a second week of Boosters are scheduled for the second week of February.
All staff, both administrative and clinical, played critical hands-on roles in the process and were delighted to be involved in this effort, especially at times when there was great demand for vaccines. The project involved a huge communication and logistical effort between Trinity College and the HSE.
This vaccination service complements the Trinity, on-campus, Covid 19 PCR testing centre which is a collaboration with the HSE, and which has been operational since September 2020. The HSE provide the logistics, transport, tests and Laboratory diagnosis, but the Testing Centre is run by Trinity College Health Administrative and Clinical Staff.
The rollout of of on-site vaccination was a hugely positive experience for students and staff at Trinity and it was with great anticipation that the first batch of Covid 1n vaccines arrived at College Health. In the first, large scale, clinic we vaccinated medically vulnerable students and staff in the College community who were designated to Group 4.
We subsequently moved through Group 7 and then into the Booster programme.
This onsite vaccination programme is part of the overall strategy, delivered on-campus, to combat COVID-19, working within Government policy and the HSE framework.
The third part of this Jigsaw is the regular testing of asymptomatic students and staff, initially through our own Triniscreen pilot, and, subsequently, our central involvement in the Unicov Project.
This proactive approach to all aspects of Covid 19 has been very much appreciated by the College Community as a whole and, running in parallel with the Research output and communications from our Academics, has ensured that we have facilitated as safe a College experience as possible for our students and staff.