Legal Affairs Correspondent
A public information campaign is under way about the rollout of the Covid-19
vaccination programme for people over 70.
Notices have been placed in newspapers as part of a public information
campaign to let people know that they will be contacted by their GPs to
register for vaccination.
Around 81,000 people over 85 will be first in line to be vaccinated and the
programme is expected to get under way next month.
However, it is unclear how quickly it will move after that given the
shortfall in supply from AstraZeneca.
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee met yesterday and although no
final decision has been made, it is expected to allow the use of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 65, despite a lack of data so far
about how effective it will be in that group.
The HSE's Chief Clinical Officer said over 80% of the population will now
have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to achieve herd immunity due to the
new variants.
Dr Colm Henry said the current strains are becoming more dominant,
especially the variant first identified in the UK, and he said it "demands a
greater population coverage for the vaccine".
So far this month just under 1,070 deaths have been notified to the National
Public Health Emergency Team, more than in any other month since the
pandemic began.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said there had also been more than
100,000 cases this month, which showed how quickly the disease could spread.
There has been a slight increase in the number of people with Covid-19 in
hospital.
The latest figures show that as of 8am, there were 1,515 patients being
treated for the virus, compared to 1,494 at the same time yesterday and
1,503 at 8pm last night.
On this day last week, there were 1,914 people hospitalised with the
coronavirus.
There has also been a slight rise in the number of patients receiving
treatment in intensive care units.
As of 7.30pm last night, there were 213 people in ICU, compared to a figure
of 211 yesterday afternoon.
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