Ireland has a 'vulnerable population' as 1m yet to receive Covid booster

The deputy chief medical officer says people who have had an additional dose should be aware it takes a full seven days for the extra protection to take effect. Picture: Dan Linehan

Ireland has a "vulnerable population" facing into Christmas with around one million people yet to get a booster vaccine.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) says the Omicron strain is so infectious that if someone tests positive there's a "very strong" chance they've already passed it on to everyone they live with.

For the first time since November 12 the number of intensive care patients with Covid-19 has dropped below 100.

There are now 98 patients in ICUs across the country, with 390 people in hospitals with the virus — the lowest since October 10.

The overall figure is down 12% on last Thursday.

On Wednesday, there was a further 6,307 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the Department of Health said.

The deputy chief medical officer says people who have had an additional dose should be aware it takes a full seven days for the extra protection to take effect.

Dr Ronan Glynn says that while it is "a challenging time" people must not become disheartened.

"Many people will feel like you know, we haven't come very far from where we were this time last year, but in fact, an awful lot has changed," Dr Glynn said.

"This time last year if we reported 6,000 cases, we would have been able to predict that 300 of those people with end up in hospital.

"Thanks to vaccination and booster vaccination, we know that less than 100 of the cases today are likely to end up in hospital on average in the next week or two."

Nphet is urging people to stay home and isolate as a group if anyone gets a positive PCR or antigen test result for the virus.

Dr Glynn added: "There's really no other advice we can give other than to say if anybody in your household test positive on either an antigen or a PCR test, then you all need to stay away from others."

The HSE’s director general Paul Reid said Ireland has done "extraordinary well" as he pointed out that 94% of the population over the age of 18 had been vaccinated.

Earlier, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said that Covid will be circulating at a “high level” after Christmas and into the New Year.

He said that recent research shows many people have reviewed their plans for Christmas, reduced their social contacts, and changed or postponed plans.

“This is a big sacrifice that many have made and will do much to protect all of us over the festive period,” he added.

“Even though it is a difficult message to hear, we must all continue to keep our social contacts low and do all we can to continue to adhere to the public health advice.

“We know that our young people are making a really big effort to act responsibly and to follow the public health advice, and I would like to thank them for their significant efforts.

“It is really important that we all remember that there is no one person or group or thing to blame in the situation we find ourselves in, other than the Covid-19 virus.”

'Disproportionate impact'

The HSE’s director general Paul Reid said Ireland has done "extraordinary well" as he pointed out that 94% of the population over the age of 18 had been vaccinated.

However, he acknowledged that 54% of the patients in ICU had not been vaccinated, “that’s from six percent of the population”. 

It is important for people to come forward to be vaccinated to stop this "disproportionate impact", he said.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Reid said that in his personal view the policy of “encouraging and cajoling” people to get vaccinated was the better approach.

Every week there were 17,000 to 20,000 people coming forward for their first and second doses and the HSE was continuing to work with vulnerable groups and NGOs in a bid to reduce vaccine hesitancy. 

It's encouraging that the numbers were slowly reducing each week, he said.

Mr Reid said that this time last year 87,000 PCR tests were carried out, this year that figure was 220,000 and would continue to grow, probably to 300,000.

 On December 26 last year the first batch of 9,750 doses of vaccine arrived into the country, yesterday 109,000 doses were administered.

“We should never lose hope and joy. The health service is working around the clock to care for everyone.” 

Mr Reid thanked the public for their “amazing service” and he encouraged people to be patient and kind to healthcare staff and not to attend at emergency departments unless absolutely necessary. It was hoped to treat more patients in the community.