People between 60 and 69 to get second dose of AstraZeneca within 10 days, says Taoiseach

Everyone aged between 60 and 69 will get their second dose of the Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine within 10 days, the Taoiseach confirmed last night, amid mounting concerns about the risks posed to the cohort by the Delta variant.

Speaking to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, Micheál Martin pledged that all second doses would be completed by July 18th. He was speaking in the face of concerns from Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators whose constituents said they were told by the HSE their second AstraZeneca doses would not be administered until late July or early August.

However, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed they would all “be done” by July 18th. However, Mr Martin warned that unvaccinated people should be careful over the next few weeks.

Last night State chief medical officer Tony Holohan said the Republic was “continuing to see an increase in the incidence rate” of the virus and that it was important people did as much as possible to control the spread of the disease as the vaccination programme continues.

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Mr Donnelly said he also expects people aged 30 to 34 who have registered with the vaccine portal to begin getting their appointment dates next week. Mr Martin said “we owe it to protect our young people by accelerating the vaccine rollout and being conscious of the impact of long Covid”.

It comes as health authorities warned yesterday that Northern Ireland was in the “early stages of a significant further wave” amid a “big push” to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

Modelling published by the North’s chief scientific officer Ian Young on Wednesday showed under the “most likely” scenario the North could be facing 2000-3,000 new cases per day towards the beginning of August.

“It is inevitable that as cases increase so admissions and bed occupancy in hospitals will increase followed by patients requiring critical care treatment and unfortunately deaths,” said Prof Young.

“The increase is going to be less than in previous waves because vaccination has weakened the link between case numbers and hospital admissions, but it hasn’t abolished it.”

Number hospitalised

The modelling also showed the number of inpatients would peak at 400 people in hospital with Covid-19 at the end of August or the start of September, with the total number hospitalised between 500-600.

Separately, Mr Martin said the Government was on track to go live with the digital Covid certificate for EU travel on Monday 19th.

Travel to Ireland from Britain will also be “much easier” from July 19th as people who have been fully vaccinated will not have to quarantine at home, it emerged yesterday.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said that from July 19th vaccinated people who travel here from the Britain will not have to quarantine.

“For others who don’t have the vaccination they will have to continue to abide by the home quarantine and we will continue to review that,” he said.

However, the Government did not respond to a question on whether the situation will change for children . At present only children aged six and under are exempt from the requirement to have a negative pre-departure PCR test. Older children aged between seven and 17 have no immediate prospect of being vaccinated against Covid-19.