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People aged 59 or older can register for a Covid-19 vaccination from today as the national rollout for those in their 50s gets underway. The HSE has said people aged 50-59 will be able to register for the vaccine over the next ten days.
At present, when a person registers, the system acknowledges the registration and says an appointment will be made within seven days but does not indicate an actual date for that appointment. The HSE says it plans to vaccinate between 220,000 and 240,000 people in the coming week.
According to the HSE website, 58-year-olds will be able to register on Wednesday, 57-year-olds on Thursday, 56-year-olds on Friday and 55-year-olds on Saturday. Those aged 50 to 54 will be invited to register for their vaccination from Sunday, May 9th while people aged 60 to 69 who have not yet registered for the vaccine continue to be encouraged to do so. Details on registration are available at: vaccine.hse.ie/
The 40-49 cohort is not expected to be reached for some weeks.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid tweeted on Sunday that there was “great momentum on vaccinations” and that the HSE’s revised plan aimed to continue working down through the ages with available supplies.
The HSE advised on Monday that older people should be vaccinated first and sent its recommendations to Government ahead of today’s Cabinet meeting, at which Ministers are expected to discuss the plan.
The revised plan has been under consideration since the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) last week recommended that AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines should not be given to the under-50s where possible.
However, officials believe that offering the two vaccines to people aged under- 50 would not contravene the Niac recommendations, which said use should not be restricted if no other option is available.
Following discussions between health officials and Ministers in recent days, it is expected that the same approach will apply to under-50s as to over-50s - meaning that some people in their 40s could be offered the Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca shots.
There had been speculation that the Government would opt to begin vaccinating younger people with Pfizer vaccines while proceeding with the over-50s at a slower pace.
However, it is understood that this has not been recommended due to the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 being greater for the older cohort. There is also a determination to avoid a situation where vaccines are left unused while some people are still waiting for a jab.
From today, meanwhile, residents in nursing homes where at least 80 per cent of residents have been fully vaccinated will be able to enjoy four visits per week, according to new HSE guidelines. The increase in nursing home visits only applies to residents who have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks.
Residents in nursing homes where the level of vaccinations has not yet reached 80 per cent will continue to enjoy two visits per week.
Mr Reid said on Sunday in a tweet that nearly 200,000 vaccinations were administered last week including 44,000 on Friday. This brings to more than 788,000 the total number of vaccinations “through April”, he wrote.
There were 135 people in hospital with Covid-19 on Monday evening. This compares to the 184 Covid-19 patients receiving hospital care one week ago and 250 people hospitalised for Covid-19 one month ago, on April 4th.
There were 40 Covid-19 patients in ICU on Monday evening with 26 on ventilators. There had been 56 people in ICU on this day a month ago.
Tallaght Hospital is currently caring for the highest number of Covid-19 patients followed by the Mater Hospital, Naas General Hospital and St James’ Hospital.
No Covid-19 related deaths were notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on Monday while 453 positive cases were confirmed, bringing to 250,290 the total number of cases in Ireland since the pandemic hit last year. Some 78 per cent of people who tested positive on Monday were aged under 45 years while the median age was 25.
Meanwhile, passengers travelling from India to Ireland will have to enter mandatory hotel quarantine from Tuesday as will people arriving from Georgia, Iran, Mongolia and Costa Rica. There are currently more than 70 countries on the State’s red travel list which requires hotel quarantine. These include all South American nations and a number of EU countries.