CUA institutes assist in roll out of vaccine to people in West and North-West

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 Press Office
Press Release

CUA Institutes IT Sligo and LYIT have been chosen by the HSE as locations for the mass roll-out of vaccines. The vaccination centre in Sligo opened on the 10 February and works are currently ongoing in Letterkenny with the centre set to open on 1 March.

The two CUA institutes are part of the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) whose member institutions have campuses across fifteen counties and are ideally placed to assist HSE and Government through its High-Level Task Force in the vaccination roll-out logistics. 

All THEA member institutions have offered further assistance to Government and many institutional leadership teams are already in talks with Government around how campus facilities, teams, and expertise can be best used in order to help to accelerate the delivery of vaccines to all population groups.  The decision in respect of the requirement in any given location will ultimately lie with the HSE.  The first mass vaccination centres opened last week (10 February) in IT Sligo Knocknarea Arena for frontline health workers and in LYIT’s An Dánlann on the Letterkenny campus.    

Dr Seán Duffy, CUA Executive Project Executive Lead, says: “The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all our lives.  The roll out of the vaccine is a much welcome development and the CUA Institutes are pleased to be in a position to support the HSE and the wider community.”

All of the THEA member institutions contributed significantly to the national effort during the first wave of the public health crisis in early 2020.  Examples of assistance included:

Production of PPE

Donation of campus infrastructure for testing facilities and laboratories

Research and development expertise

Development of sanitising products

Development and production of emergency ventilation equipment

Personnel to support frontline activities

Further examples can be found here: covid-19-helping/

Dr Joseph Ryan, CEO of THEA stated: “Our institutions are geographically dispersed throughout Ireland with campus facilities across the country.  The applied nature of our teaching and learning places us at a distinct advantage in contributing to the national effort in combating the effects of COVID 19 through the donation of facilities, expertise, research and development, laboratories, and infrastructure.

“Most of our institutions are already in discussions with Government and HSE in order best to establish how they can contribute to the national vaccination effort and work is underway in a number of institutions to create vaccination centres which will be formally announced in the coming weeks. We are delighted to see the first centres open already in IT Sligo and in MTU and wish our colleagues well in their contributions to the national vaccination efforts.

“We look forward to continuing to support the national public health effort as we move through the vaccination roll-out.”

ENDS

First issued by Róisín O’Connell
THEA Head of Communications
roisin.oconnell@thea.ie 
www.thea.ie

Galway-Mayo IT, IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT working together to become a TU for the West and North-West of Ireland www.cualliance.ie