Cabinet should be vaccinated as they are key workers, health expert says

A nurse prepares the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. File picture

Virologist Dr Cillian de Gascun has said that the Cabinet should be vaccinated as they are key workers and decision makers.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show he said that the Cabinet were important decision-makers in the middle of a pandemic.

Dr de Gascun, who is Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, was responding to a question about whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin should be vaccinated if he goes to Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day.

As a decision-maker the Taoiseach should be kept safe, he added.

Nphet confirmed last night that as of February 6, 236,996 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland so far. 

152,652 people have received their first dose 84,344 people have received their second dose

Nphet also reported 68 further deaths and 556 new Covid-19 cases. 

The comments come as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU's much-criticised vaccine rollout could partly be blamed on the bloc being over-optimistic, over-confident and plainly “late”.

The commission chief defended the EU’s overall approach of trying to beat the pandemic with a unified vaccine plan for its 27 nations, even as she admitted mistakes in the strategy to quickly obtain sufficient vaccines for its 447 million citizens.

“We are still not where we want to be. We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production and perhaps we were too confident that, what we ordered, would actually be delivered on time,” Ms von der Leyen told the EU plenary session.