Immunology expert says Covid cases falling among groups getting booster jabs

An immunology expert has said Covid-19 case numbers are falling in groups who are receiving booster jabs.

Prof Christine Loscher, of Dublin City University, said the number of positive cases are stabilising, with lower numbers of overall cases in the past few days and lower numbers in hospitals and in ICU.

The situation is "much more stable than two weeks ago", Prof Loscher told RTÉ's Claire Byrne show on Monday night.

She said that the concern about the Omicron variant is whether antibodies which close off routes for the virus into human cells by targeting long spiked proteins will recognise the significant number of mutations on the variant in the same way as they recognise the spiked proteins.

Parents to be asked to reduce children’s activities to curb Covid-19 spread

---

Q&A: What does Omicron mean for travel to and from Ireland?

---

Risk of Omicron variant: Additional Covid testing for arrivals into State under consideration

---

No reason to believe vaccines will not work against Omicron variant, says de Gascun

---

The Omicron variant has maybe 30 mutations, significantly more than in the Alpha and Delta variants, she said. The scientific community is continuing to examine how the Omicron variant behaves in relation to infectivity and whether vaccines can block it as effectively as they are blocking the Delta variant.

A poll of 1,000 people carried out for the show sought the public’s response to the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 situation this month. The Claire Byrne Live Amárach Smart Phone panel found 59 per cent said the Government response was too slow, seven per cent considered it was too fast and 34 per cent said it was moving at the right speed. Just over half, 52 per cent, said they expected a lockdown between now and Christmas.