President Higgins and wife Sabina receive Covid-19 vaccines

President Michael D Higgins and wife Sabina have received their first vaccines.

The couple were vaccinated at their local GP on Friday. They are both 79 and therefore eligible for the vaccine through the Health Service Executive’s rollout programme.

Neither President Higgins nor his wife wished to “jump the queue” for the jab. They will receive their second dose in a month’s time.

“Their turn having come, President Higgins and Sabina were grateful to receive their first Covid-19 vaccination from their local GP on Friday,” said a spokesman. He declined to elaborate further.

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The President will hope to return at a later date to public duties and events outside Áras an Uachtaráin. He has been unable to them on since the pandemic restrictions began a year ago.

In an interview with The Irish Times last month, President Higgins said he has spent more time in the last year reading and writing than for a long time.

“I go out with my dog,” he said via Zoom. “And I walk around the periphery here. I see people at the other side of the Áras and we discuss dogs at a much exaggerated social distancing.”