Fourth Covid booster jabs could be rolled out as soon as the summer as the Government braces itself for future Covid waves.
The Government is waiting on official advice from NIAC (National Immunisation Advisory Council), but Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, has revealed the Government is looking at summer jabs for some people.
The Tánaiste said: “I think we’ll probably need to start the vaccine programme around about the middle of the year.”
And Mr Varadkar said the Government is “concerned” that there are still over 1,000 people in hospital with Covid every day.
He added: “The real message to the public is that the pandemic is not over.”
The latest evidence from the WHO (World Health Organisation) shows that vaccine immunity starts to weaken after just four to five months.
It was anticipated that fourth jabs might have been needed here towards the end of the year, around the time of the annual flu vaccination programme in October or November.
But Mr Varadkar’s comments to reporters at the National Day of Remembrance for Covid victims and frontline workers indicates that this timetable could be brought forward as the world battles to beat back more Covid waves.
The news comes as over 1,000 remain in hospital with Covid daily, the same level of hospitalisations as there was a year ago, but, thankfully, only around 50 are in intensive care.
The Tánaiste said: “We’re concerned with that right now to be quite frank, because it does represent a second wave of the Omicron variant if you like.
“But it is a different situation than the one we were in before, because the population is heavily vaccinated and because a lot of people that are in hospital are in for other reasons.
“It’s not causing undue concern at this stage, but the real message to the public is the pandemic is not over.
“We really want to encourage people to have the booster, the third dose if they haven’t already - a lot of people haven’t.
“We will make a decision on NIAC advice quite soon on who we need to give a fourth dose to and this may well be an annual vaccine, at least for a couple of years.
Mr Varadkar added: “My expectation is that we will approve a fourth dose, probably not for everyone, but for older people and medically vulnerable and that will happen before the winter because there is strong evidence that immunity, both from the vaccine and from getting the virus, wears off after about four or five months, or at least starts to wear off.
“So I think we’ll probably need to start the vaccine programme around about the middle of the year rather than for the winter.”
