COVAX: National COVID-19 Immunisation System

Data Collection Type
National data collections of health and social care in Ireland
Organisation

HSE – Office of the Chief Clinical Officer.

Year established

2021

Statement of purpose

The COVAX system is an electronic dataset which records all COVID-19 vaccinations for all residents in the State. It also assists in the planning of vaccination clinics as well as being used for statistical and activity analysis.

In-Scope: All COVID-19 vaccinations for all residents who receive a vaccination in Ireland leading to a Vaccination certificate for travel purposes.

Out-of-Scope: Non-COVID-19 vaccinations (e.g. Schools Immunisation Programme).

Coverage (geographical and temporal)

National – all residents of the State who have registered for COVID-19 vaccination during 2021 and 2022 to date.

The data collection start date was the 27th December 2020 and continues to this day.

Description/Summary

The data collection are made up of retrospective (from paper records) and real time data entry records detailing the the processing of each residents who received a vaccination (if consented) or not. The data includes the person-identifying information of the citizen. It also includes data on citizens who were not vaccinated by virtue of non-attendance.

Data users

- National Immunisation Office
- Staff in vaccination centres
- HPSC
- OoCIO COVAX team
- OoCIO IIS department
- Health Identifiers Department
- GPs via IIS COVAX lookup function.

Data content

- Client demographic records
- Client immunisation records
- Client eligibility records
- Relevant client clinical information
- Client consent documentation
- Adverse incidents
- Appointment messages.

Data dictionary

Available on request.

National-level identifier variables

IHI allocation is 95% for all records. COVAX is also a source system for IHI lookup, and will be an authentication system for client consented government authorisation of ID.

PPSN is requested at registration to to enable GP payments.

Equity stratifiers

Ethnicity

Nationality

Occupation (for healthcare professionals)

Eligibility Cohorts.

Data collection methodology

The data are collected on an as-required basis. This, in practise, is a daily occurrence as residents can log onto a portal to provide their information.

In addition to this, information is provided via electronic transmission from GPs and Pharmacies at the point of vaccination.

Clinical coding scheme

Snomed coding exists for the covid-19 vaccine and other fields such as Ethnicity.

Size of national collection

- 4 million registrations
- 11 million immunisations.

Publication frequency

Data is updated and published continuously. The national figures are published daily by the HPSC.

Accessing data

The data in Covax are accessed by staff in the NIO for the purpose of data curation and vaccination programme management. The data are also accessed by Vaccination Centre staff for the purpose of system maintenance, data quality and data entry. In addition to the national aggregate data published by the HPSC, individual Client immunisation records may be requested by individuals through their local immunisation office as a Subject Access Request and are provided automatically in the form of vaccination certificates for HSE vaccines. This is a function provided by OoCIO IIS (Integrated Information Systems) staff who automate release of quality checked immunisation records, and also provide a facility for GPs and Pharmacies to look up vaccine history.

Open data portal access

No.

Email contact
Other comments

Clients can find information on their immunisation schedule and what to expect during a vaccination at the national immunisation website at: www.immunisation.ie