Covid-19 Booster shots to be offered as milestone reached of 70 fully vaccinated

Over 70 per cent of adults are now fully vaccinated in the State wih 85 per cent partially vaccinated with 5.66 million Covid-19 doses administered, the latest official figures show.

Taoisach Micheál Martin described this as a “brilliant national effort in our vaccine rollout”. HE chief executive Paul Reid described it as a “great national milestone”.

It comes as the Covid-19 vaccination programme is to be extended, with boosters offered to older and vulnerable people and vaccines to children, amid Government concerns about the potential for reinfection and more cases among young people.

Pharmacists may offer a coronavirus booster shot alongside the annual flu jab to older people as early as September or October under the latest plans. Nursing home residents, the over-80s and frontline healthcare workers would first be offered the booster shots in the autumn and winter months.

The Cabinet also agreed to extend Covid-19 inoculations to children aged between 12 and 15, who could start receiving appointments as early as next week. The move has further bolstered the belief in Government that all schools will be in a position to fully reopen in Septembe

On Wednesday Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said there was “absolutely no suggestion” that children who were not vaccinated could not return to school.

It was “ethical and right” to protect children and society, but it was up to parents to decide if their child should be vaccinated, the Minister told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Ireland had a high level of take up of vaccines, he added, pointing out that in the first 90 minutes of the opening of the portal to register 16- to 17-year-olds, there had been 10,000 registrations.

Earlier on Newstalk Breakfast Mr Donnelly said his priority was to get the vaccine to children aged 12 to 15 years who were at high risk or vulnerable or were from families with such conditions.

There were 269,000 children in the 12 to 15 years age group, he said. There was a need to listen carefully and respectfully to any parents who had concerns, but the National Immunisation Advisory Committee had determined that the benefits of being vaccinated far outweighed any risks.

Mr Donnelly outlined the plans for booster vaccines in the autumn, which will be combined with the flu vaccine.

“We’ll have the biggest vaccine activity in any winter in the history of the State. We’re looking at the best way to do that.”

The priority will be four cohorts - residential care home residents, frontline workers, the over 80s and the immunocompromised, he told RTÉ.

When asked about the Tánaiste’s request for more detailed Covid hospital statistics, Mr Donnelly said he agreed that it was important to know the vaccination status of patients - whether they had their first or second dose, how many days they were post their second dose.

Of the 124 Covid patients who had been in ICU, only one had had both doses. The Department of Health was working with the HSE to get such information, he said.

Parents’ questions

The Covid-19 adviser for the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr Mary Favier, has said that GPs would be happy to answer any questions parents might have about giving the vaccine to their children.

Dr Favier, who is also a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), told Newstalk Breakfast that parents of high risk or vulnerable children had been asking for the vaccine for some time.

GPs were prepared to address any concerns parents could have about the vaccine, which had been proven to be effective and safe with very few side effects.

At present one in five cases of Covid-19 were in this age group, said Dr Favier, which was why vaccination was so important for the individuals and for the population in general. She anticipated that the roll out of the vaccine to this cohort would commence with high risk and vulnerable children and would then be open to all in the 12 to 15 years age group.

Extending the vaccination programme to this age group was going to have “a huge impact” on the return to school and would play an important role in education in general, she added.

While children generally did not experience extreme symptoms from Covid-19, said Dr Favier, there had been cases of long covid. This was a significant concern and parents would want their children to be safe.

It would be an individual decision for parents, but GPs would be there to assist them with answers.

To date, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency for 12 to 15-year-olds. During clinical trials, the estimate for efficacy of both was reported as 100 per cent in this age groups.

The HSE will spend several days this week making arrangements to accommodate the younger cohort. This will involve allowing parents to register their child on the vaccine portal and accompany them to a vaccination centre.

The Cabinet was told on Tuesday that nearly one in five cases reported in the last three weeks were among teenagers.

Separately, a number of vaccination centres will this week allow people to walk in for vaccinations without an appointment.

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