Vaccination centre at Bloomfield House Hotel to close
The “Community Vaccination Centre” at Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar will close as the licensing arrangement has expired, the HSE has confirmed this week.
The vaccination centre will relocate to Moate Community Centre, which is to open on September 2 (Thursday of this week).
A HSE spokesperson said: “We would like to thank everyone at Bloomfield Hotel for their support over the past few months.”
The centre cost just over €250,000 - €146,000 wasspent on rental of the facility and €108,000 went towards fit-out and equipment costs.
The Athlone Covid-19 vaccination centre cost the HSE almost €700,000 for its rental and fit-out. The largest vaccine facility in the midlands, it had 40 booths and opened on April 21.
In an overview document on its vaccination centres, the HSE said the use of the Athlone facility cost a total of €677,200. This was broken down as €386,000 for fit-out and equipment hire, and €291,200 for rental of the site.
In total, the HSE was expecting to pay just over €1.9m in site costs associated with vaccination centres across the counties of Westmeath, Roscommon, Longford, Offaly and Laois.
After Athlone, the Offaly centre was the next-most costly in the midlands. It had been located in the Tullamore Court Hotel before moving to Mucklagh community centre this week and cost some €385,000 (€267,000 in site rental and €118,000 in fit-out), according to the HSE document.
The Roscommon vaccination centre, which had been located at the Abbey Hotel but moved to Kilbride Community Centre in recent weeks, was costing €241,240 (€214,240 in site rental and €27,000 for fit-out).
The centres at the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise and at Clonguish GAA Club in Longford cost some €223,736 and €134,000 respectively.
Nationally, the HSE said it expected to pay just over €17m in site costs - €8.8m for fit-out and equipment as well as €8.3m towards rent - for its network of vaccination centres.
As of Thursday last, a total of 6,736,217 Covid vaccinations had been administered in Ireland, with 3,649,203 people having received their first jab and 3,087,014 given two doses.