Ireland is in the midst of what health experts are calling a 'summer wave' of Covid-19 cases as the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 strains spread through the community.
While case numbers are thought to be as high as 10,000 per day at the moment, most of those becoming infected are experiencing mild effects due to the extremely high uptake of the vaccines here in Ireland.
However, there are many people who have yet to receive their booster shots - and some who have never had any vaccination - and at this point will have waning immunity.
In light of this, Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Colm Henry, said there is an emerging trend among those who are hospitalised with the virus.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne about the trends being seen, Dr. Henry said: "The harsh reality is that if you look at hospitalisations, 606 this morning, unfortunately over half have not received their booster and over a third haven't even got vaccinated in the first place."
He insisted that it is not too late to get your dose and that "people who are unvaccinated in the first place have no protection from serious illness, no protection from being hospitalised and going to ICU or worse.”
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said he believes the country will make it through this 'summer wave' of Covid without needing to reintroduce restrictions.
Speaking on Monday, he said: “As always the case, we’ll be guided by public health advice on this.
“The current advice from the CMO is that we don’t need to extend the mask mandate, that we continue to encourage it in healthcare settings and obviously on public transport as well but not that it would be legally mandatory.
“We are seeing a summer wave of infections as you know, over 600 people in hospital today were positive.
“About half of them would be in hospital anyway, but nonetheless it is an increase and I think we will get over this summer wave without the need to impose any new restrictions, but obviously we’ll be guided by public health advice in that regard.”
Anyone that decides to get their first dose, or their booster shot, can now use the following online services to book a Covid-19 vaccination appointment:
- your second booster dose - people over 65 and people over 12 with a weak immune system
- your first booster dose - people aged 12 and older
- dose 1 and dose 2 - people aged 5 and older
You can book an appointment up to 5 days in advance.
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