The chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has urged anyone of reproductive age to take the Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available for their cohort.

Speaking on Tuesday, Cliona Murphy said there was no evidence of adverse effects for pregnant women who had been vaccinated for Covid-19. She acknowledged that pregnant women had not been included in the original vaccine studies but noted it was subsequently found that a number of participants were pregnant and had experienced no adverse outcomes.

Dr Murphy told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland that the vaccine could actually have benefits for the baby as the antibodies from the vaccine would be available to them.

Hospital Report

When asked about the possibility of the vaccine causing infertility, Dr Murphy was adamant that there was no evidence of infertility. “There’s none, none at all” to indicate any connection to difficulties to conceive or to continue pregnancy, she said.

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Couples planning on using IVF should also go ahead and get the vaccine when the opportunity arises, she said, adding that it would be safe to continue treatment within two days of receiving the vaccination.

The Covid-19 virus could pose more of a problem for male fertility than the vaccine, said Dr Murphy, noting that any viral illness can impact male fertility.

The number of patients in hospital with cases of Covid-19 dropped below 400 on Monday for the first time this year, with 392 coronavirus patients receiving hospital treatment on Monday evening, according to the latest HSE figures.

The number of people in hospital with the virus dropped by 26 on Monday from 418 cases in the morning to 392 by evening. There are currently 101 people in ICU including 66 patients on ventilators.

The last time the number of hospitalisations dropped below 400 was on December 28th when 385 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in hospitals. At the time, numbers were rising rapidly, jumping from 236 hospitalisations on December 21st to 530 hospitalisations on January 1st.

No further deaths of Covid-19 patients were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Monday. This leaves at 4,422 the total number of deaths in the pandemic. Nphet reported 437 confirmed cases of the disease with the median age for cases now at 34 years.

Some 363,601 people in Ireland have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine while 149,721 have received the second dose, according to the latest HSE published data on vaccine rollout from Friday, March 5th. This brings to 513,322 the number of vaccines administered so far

The HSE’s clinical lead on infection control, Professor Martin Cormican issued a caution on Tuesday to people who had been fully vaccinated, urging them to “hold on” before moving freely around the community.

“We’re saying ‘hold on’, we’re not quite there yet where they can do more things,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, adding that there was still “a fair amount” of community transmission.

Prof Cormican said it was hoped people with chronic conditions who are in category four of the vaccine rollout would be vaccinated by the end of the month and that the HSE was working with the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) to identify people in this group.

Not having a central register has made the challenge difficult, he admitted, but the majority of high risk patients will be identified through the hospital system.

The priority was to find these people who were most at risk and to vaccinate them as soon as possible, said Prof Cormican. However, it was likely to be next week before most people in the group get vaccinated, he said.

Patients will be contacted by their hospital about the vaccination, he added. “The goal is to find as many as possible by the end of the month”.

Prof Cormican said the vaccine may not work as well for people with severely immunocompromised systems but that “even if it partly works it may still be enough to keep them from having a very serious disease”.

Deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn said on Monday that Nphet had started looking at what changes should be made in recognition of the wider vaccination of people when it comes to easing restrictions in April.

“I’m hopeful over the coming weeks we’ll start to be able to tell people what the bonus from vaccination is and what you can and cannot do,” said Dr Glynn. “We have vaccines, the vast majority of people in nursing homes have been vaccinated. Hopefully, there will be vaccine bonus for people over the next while.”

On Thursday, Nphet will consider specifically what changes should be made to visiting arrangements for nursing homes now that the sector is fully vaccinated.

However, Ireland remains on a “precarious pathway” and needs to ensure a continued fall in case numbers throughout March so that the possibility of another wave declines, Dr Glynn said.