Covid-19: Second booster vaccines offered to people aged 18 to 49

People aged 18-49 can register for second Covid-19 booster vaccines from today, the HSE has announced, while the provision of vaccines to children aged between six months and four years has been approved by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac).

People in the 18-49 age cohort are being invited to register for their appointments at HSE.ie, once it is six months since their last vaccine or since they have had a Covid-19 infection. Boosters may also be available at pharmacies and GPs. The move comes amid a sharp rise in Covid, flu and other illnesses.

HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said: “We continue to be very concerned about the steep rise in cases of Covid-19, influenza and other respiratory illness at this time.”

He said there had been more than a doubling of flu cases. “The week ending on December 24th, we had 2,329 flu cases reported, compared to 1,174 the previous week. People needing hospital admission for flu jumped to 637, from 299 the previous week. Covid-19 cases increased to 3,809, compared to 3,118 the previous week, with 737 people in hospital with Covid-19,” he said.

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Dr Henry said “getting a vaccine, whether it’s your next Covid-19 booster, or a flu vaccine if you or your children are due to get it, can really help to protect you, the people around you, and our health services. Since flu season can last for 12 weeks or more – it’s not too late to do that now.”

[ Covid-19 not a ‘normal’ seasonal viral infection ]

[ Hospital emergency departments have become ‘warehouses’ of patients ]

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s news at One, the HSE’s National Lead on the Covid vaccination programme, Eileen Whelan, said that roughly eight per cent of those currently hospitalised with Covid are in the 18 to 49 age cohort.

“So there’s 65 people that are in the age group of 18 to 49 in hospital with Covid, I think that’s a phenomenal number,” she said.

“At present, we have double the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 as we had this time last year, that’s an indication that people are still getting ill and they’re ill enough to require hospitalisation [but] the evidence is there that if you receive a vaccine, the severity of your illness will be less.

“The people that are 18 to 49 that are eligible for their booster from today, they will be eligible for the bivalent vaccine. The bivalent vaccine offers broader protection, and it’s going to offer protection to the new variants that are in circulation.

“I encourage everyone to get their second booster dose. It will give ongoing protection from serious illness, and increase your immunity against infection from Covid-19, which we know tends to reduce after a period of months following your last vaccine.”

Up to now only some under 50s were eligible to receive second boosters including healthcare workers or people with underlying health conditions.

Ms Whelan also confirmed that Niac had decided to recommend vaccination for children under five.

“Children aged four and under who would have underlying medical conditions who may be immunocompromised or children that may have no underlying conditions are also at risk from contracting Covid,” she said.

“We do know that the highest risk is in the older age groups. But Niac have assessed the clinical evidence and they have assessed the safety evidence both in other countries and the evidence in relation to the five to 11-year-olds and the evidence that currently exists in administering bivalents and they have assessed this as safe and as the right thing to do.”

Speaking on the same programme Paul Moynagh, Professor of Immunology at Maynooth University, said that recent evidence from the UK suggested that 90 per cent of children aged one to four there have already been infected with Covid but that “generally any childhood diseases where there is a safe and effective vaccine, that’s to be welcomed”.

Asked about the imposition of restrictions by Italy on those arriving into the country from China and its call for the rest of the EU to follow suit, Prof Moynagh said: “I don’t think they’re going to have a major impact because most of the contribution is going to come from the circulation virus within the local country. So I think if the levels of circulating viruses are very low, yes, travel restrictions may be beneficial, but in countries where the levels are quite high again, I think the effect will be minimal.”

The latest moves on vaccinations come as hospitals are under increasing pressure this winter. On Wednesday, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) said emergency departments (EDs) have become “warehouses” of patients waiting for admission to hospital, with “apocalyptic” predictions for the pressure on the health service now becoming a reality.

As it reported another increase in the number of people waiting on trolleys in hospitals around the country on Thursday morning, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) called on the HSE “to do everything necessary to protect the physical and mental wellbeing of nurses and midwives”.

The organisation’s General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said staff across the health service were struggling to cope.

“Our hospitals have never seen this level of activity at this time of year with high levels of overcrowding impacting care in hospitals large and small. Our fragile health service is being held together by an exhausted and burnt-out workforce. We know anecdotally that many rosters are depleted due to illness,” she said.

“Today over 631 people have been admitted to hospital but are on a trolley in our emergency departments or elsewhere in our hospitals coupled with 690 Covid patients in our hospitals. We know that our public health system is not equipped to deal with providing emergency care, Covid care and elective care at the same time.

“Our members are working in situations that are extraordinarily dangerous. There is now a real concern that nurses cannot provide safe care when conditions are so difficult, and rosters so stretched. The HSE must do everything that is necessary to protect the physical and mental wellbeing of our nursing workforce at this challenging time.”

Ms Ní Sheaghdha repeated the INMO’s call for the HSE to make greater use of private hospitals in its efforts to address the current issues.

Of the 631 patients it reported to be on trolleys in hospitals on Thursday morning, 514 were in EDs around the country, with 117 being in wards.

University Hospital Limerick (UHL) again had the highest number of patients on trolleys on Thursday with 96, followed by St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny at 47, down by 10 on the previous day.