AK: Good logistics needed to carry out home vaccinations

Vaccination of bedridden patients and their carers has started in Estonia but good planning is an essential part of the process as it can take up to two hours to vaccinate five people.
On Wednesday, ETV's evening new show "Aktuaalne kaamera" looked at how the vaccination process differs when carried out in people's homes and followed nurses as they administered the vaccine in Lasnamäe.
The vaccinations are being carried out with Janssen, the one-dose shot, and AK reported that the vaccines need to be prepared in advance and then carefully transported. Additionally, the patient must be monitored for 15 minutes after receiving a dose which is why only five shots can be carried out in two hours.
The doses are being administered by Medicum, which organized the last mass vaccination at Tondiraba ice rink in March. Medicum's head nurse Andra Õismaa told AK it is much easier to organize a mass vaccination than home vaccinations.
Currently, Medicum is having to try and find five people living close together to give the vaccines too so doses are not wasted after opening a bottle and the logistics process is key.
"It would be much easier to make an influenza vaccine pre-packaged in single-dose syringes. Now we have to find five people who preferably do not live very far because the vaccine is temperature sensitive," Õismaa said.
She said this has been complicated in Lasnamäe as many people reject the vaccines so nurses have to contact multiple people to find five wishing to be vaccinated in the same area.
Brothers Aivar and Urmas were the first to receive Janssen in Tallinn. "Everything is well, everything is good," they told AK.
The brother's parents have already been vaccinated and mother Pilvi received her second dose of Moderna on Wednesday. Everyone in the family wanted to be vaccinated.
So far 500 doses of Janssen have been administered of the 8,400 doses which arrived at the end of April.
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Editor: Helen Wright