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A 101-year-old resident of an East Cork nursing home was the first to receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at Oaklodge Nursing Home earlier today. Peg Curtin was the first to complete the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination program at the home which has so far vaccinated 98% of its residents and staff and has remained Covid free throughout the pandemic.
Peg, a mother-of-five and former librarian, said she was “absolutely delighted” to get the vaccine; “I thank God every day that I’m still here,” she said.
Oaklodge, which specialises in care for people living with dementia, continuously innovated over the past year to enhance the safety and quality of life and care for their residents. It was the first nursing home in Ireland to pilot innovative remote temperature checking software that can detect early Covid-19 warning symptoms in staff. They also introduced regular rapid Covid testing of staff and visitors in addition to fortnightly HSE testing.
60 residents and 72 members of staff at Oaklodge received their second dose of the vaccine today which is being administered to 40,000 residents and 30,000 staff in Ireland’s 580 nursing homes this week.
Commenting on the delivery of the HSE vaccination programme, Diarmuid Ó Dálaigh, owner of Oaklodge Nursing Home said, “COVID-19 has presented unparalleled challenges for nursing homes throughout the country for the last 12 months and, at Oaklodge, we worked to consistently protect our residents and staff while simultaneously maintaining quality of life and care throughout this pandemic.”
