Ireland is still 3 to 4 weeks away from Delta wave peak

Fri, 16 Jul, 2021 - 09:36

Greg Murphy

A member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) says the country is still three or four weeks away from the peak of the Delta variant wave.

Dr Mary Favier says there are concerns around younger people and those who chose not to get a vaccine, as they are not the majority of new cases in recent weeks.

The number of hospital patients with Covid-19 has increased by almost a third in the past week, with 79 people on wards with the virus.

Hospital numbers are down by one since yesterday, however, it is still 57% higher than the total last Friday.

The latest figures show there are 22 people with the virus in ICU.

Dr Favier who is Covid-19 adviser for the Irish College of GPs says there is a race against time to get as many people as possible fully vaccinated.

"We've got two, three or four weeks to really try and stay ahead of this," she said.

"For general practitioners, what we're really concerned about is we're so busy with non-Covid things, the idea that a surge would come and displace activity."

Vaccine registration for 25 to 29 year olds now open

The online booking portal for Covid-19 vaccination appointments has opened for people aged 25-29.

Registration is now open for this age group to get a Moderna or Pfizer jab if they have not received a single shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine from a pharmacy.

Meanwhile, 18 to 34-year-olds will be able to opt-in for the AstraZeneca vaccine from Monday.

It is expected that appointments will be made in the coming weeks.

More than 60% of Irish adults are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, while 75% have had at least one vaccine dose, according to the head of the vaccine taskforce.

Professor Brian MacCraith says today is "a very significant day" in the programme, with the country also hitting the milestone of five million doses administered.

Three major milestones will be reached today in our #COVID19 vaccination rollout;

➡️5 million vaccine doses delivered
➡️60% of adults fully vaccinated
➡️75% of eligible adults with at least one dose.

A great effort by everyone involved in our national programme.
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) July 16, 2021

However, Professor MacCraith says there is still a lot of work to do.

"It's wonderful to achieve 60% of adults now being fully vaccinated, but of course that we still have a good deal of a distance to go," he said.

"We want to get a very large fraction of adults vaccinated, and we currently have approval to vaccinate people right down to the age of 16-years-old and Niac are contemplating the issue of vaccinating those aged 12 to 15 so we'll see what happens there."

To register, applicants will need: