Second coronavirus booster scheme under consideration for under-65s

The expert committee which advises the Government on Covid vaccinations is currently considering a new booster programme for people under the age of 65.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) has already advised that people over 65 and those who are immunosuppressed should have their second booster.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Tuesday that Niac is giving consideration to extending the vaccination booster programme to those under 65.

“That’s a matter for Niac to come back to advise the Government on any widening of participation in relation to a second booster for different age cohorts,” he said.

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Mr Martin said the take-up of the second booster by those under 65 had not been as high as the original vaccination programme and he appealed to those over 65 to get full immunisation.

People who are immunosuppressed have been urged by Minister for Health Simon Donnelly to get their second booster

There is concern over a “very rapid increase” in the number of people in hospitals with Covid-19 in recent weeks, Mr Donnelly has said.

Latest figures show more than 600 patients were in hospital with the virus, a significant increase as a summer wave begins to hit the country.

The current number of hospitalisations among those over 65 years of age was “quite stark”, said Mr Donnelly on Tuesday.

“We’re all aware that there has been a very rapid increase in the number of patients in hospital now with Covid, as of yesterday it was a little over 600 … What’s concerning is recently it was down as low as 167, so we’ve seen a threefold increase. If I had one message it would be to ask those, particularly those over 65 and those who are immunosuppressed, if they haven’t yet got the second booster to do so.”

More than 70 per cent of those in hospital with the virus were over 65 years of age, said the Minister . While figures on vaccination booster uptake showed less than half of the population who were over 65 had received their second booster dose, he said.

A lack of booster cover would mean “more chances of Covid outbreaks” and in turn further pressure on the health service, said Mr Donnelly.

“Critically we’ve got to protect the hospital services for scheduled care. We all know there is a lot of work to bring the waiting lists down, but for that to work we have to have the beds, we have to have the operating theatres, we have to have community beds to be able to discharge people to.”

Elsewhere immunologist Prof Paul Moynagh has said that the public should carry out a personal risk assessment before attending social gatherings or visiting elderly or vulnerable relatives.

GP Yvonne Williams added that different measures would be necessary if young people were gathering compared to an event at which people would be mixing with someone who was vulnerable. Both were speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

Prof Moynagh suggested that if people were going to mix with elderly or vulnerable people they should do an antigen test. A personal risk assessment should also consider the ventilation of where they would be gathering, he added. People would just have to live with the virus as it was here to stay. Having a booster would help.

Get boosted

Wearing masks in public places would not be effective unless people were wearing them all the time, he added. There would continue to be periodic waves of the virus [and] the best way to combat this would be to get the vaccine and get boosted, he said. But he cautioned that even the booster would not stop the spread of the virus; however, it would provide protection for most people.

Dr Williams called for better clarification of who was entitled to the booster as there was some confusion among patients, she said. People with low kidney function, organ transplant recipients and those undergoing chemotherapy or cancer treatment should all be boosted, she said. Healthcare workers were eager to get the booster vaccine she said and it made sense for them to receive it as the health service was under-serviced already. If staff days were lost to Covid there was a “huge knock on” impact on patient care, she warned. “Covid is here to stay, we need to be careful.”

On Monday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he believed the country would be able to weather the current Covid-19 wave over the summer without needing to reimpose any restrictions, such as a return to mandatory wearing of face masks in some settings.

In recent days, contact tracers have expressed concerns at plans to scale down operations, which they warn could hinder the State’s ability to respond quickly to a resurgence of the virus. A group of contact tracers wrote to a range of Opposition politicians outlining their concerns and how they have flagged them to senior figures across the health and political systems.

There has been a substantial upsurge in Covid-19 cases in the State recently, with some immunologists estimating between 8,000 and 10,000 cases per day.