‘There is huge relief’ - Local nursing home one of the first to be fully vaccinated

(Above) Bethany House resident Josie Doyle after receiving her second Covid-19 vaccine.

There were plenty of smiles and even more sighs of relief in Bethany House in Tyrrellspass yesterday when it became one of the first nursing homes in the country to become fully vaccinated.

In total, 118 residents and members of staff received their second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

“There is huge relief, for the residents especially,” owner and Person in Charge Madeline Corboy said. “One resident woke up the other night, he must have been dreaming, and said ‘did I miss the magic injection’.

“They are so relieved and they know they are lucky to be among the first in the country to have their two doses.”

Bethany House is one of a relatively small number of nursing homes that has managed to remain Covid-free throughout the pandemic, an achievement that Ms Corboy says is due to the hard work and diligence of her staff.

“It is down to the amazing effort of everyone involved. It was the constant vigilance. It was being available 24 hours a day, taking calls from staff who may have been wondering if they were a close contact with somebody. It was constant vigilance,” she said.

“There was so much work done, I can’t even articulate it. It was tremendous,” she said.

After being on their collective guard for the best part of a year, Ms Corboy says that it will take some time for normality, relatively speaking, to return.

“A few of us were speaking this morning, wondering if we will ever get back to not having that level of fear constantly. We had no Covid here, none of the residents ever tested positive, thank God, but that level of fear is so ingrained that it is going to be hard to de-escalate back down to normal.

“We can breathe a bit easier. The level of anxiety and stress and fear, it varied day to day, but you were never without that anxiety and pressure at all.”

Now that they are vaccinated, Ms Corboy says that residents will hopefully be able to see a bit more of their families, while still adhering to HSE guidelines for nursing homes.

“At least they will be visiting them here and not visiting them in the graveyard,” she said.