Covid-19: Hopes and fears for this winter

With so many other fires to fight and things to worry about, it is hardly a surprise that Covid-19 has fallen down the news agenda and from the fore of minds in recent months.

Recorded case numbers are as low as they have been since before waves of the Omicron variant started washing over the country last Christmas and the numbers in hospital and ICUs with the virus are being recorded in the tens rather than the hundreds.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended a new adapted Covid-19 vaccine that targets the variant currently dominant in Ireland — which is further good news on the horizon.

But Covid-19 hasn’t gone away, and with far more indoor human interactions likely over the course of the winter, health authorities in Ireland and elsewhere are keeping a watchful eye on what might happen next.

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Irish health officials are currently finalising their plans for the next phase of the Covid-19 vaccine programme, ever mindful of the twin threat posed by the virus and flu this winter, according to Irish Times Health Editor Paul Cullen.

He talks to In The News about the Covid trends we need to watch out for, the hopeful signs and the enduring impact long Covid is having on many thousands of Irish people.