LAST UPDATE | 11 Aug 2023

THE HSE HAS stated that the Covid-19 vaccination programme will remain paused until September despite the emergence of a new variant of the virus which is known to be more contagious.

The Eris variant, which is a form of the Omicron variant, is “established in the UK and US and has been associated with outbreaks here”, the HSE confirmed in a statement to The Journal.

Earlier today, the HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Colm Henry, told Morning Ireland that Eris makes up a “significant proportion” of the 644 Covid cases in hospital in the past week.

“It’s more transmissible, and certainly driving community transmission in recent weeks, not just here, but internationally,” he said.

“There’s no evidence that this is more virulent, or produces more serious illness and there’s no increase in intensive care admissions,” he said.

“The World Health Organisation have labeled this variant a ‘variant of interest’, meaning there’ll be enhanced surveillance across all member states to see if there’s any more serious illness.”

“We now have a much more robust population immunity from both from natural infection and from vaccination, so that should stand to our advantage.”

When asked why the HSE wasn’t resuming vaccinations in light of the variant’s additional transmissibility, a spokesperson for the health service said: 

“While the new variant is more transmissible than previous circulating variants and has been associated with outbreaks, there is currently no evidence of increased clinical severity of infection but people are still advised to follow Covid-19 prevention measures.”

“We have seen waves of increased Covid-19 activity occur every few months since the start of 2022. No significant increase in infection severity has been observed in Ireland in recent weeks.”

“Unless you are in a specific risk group or setting, you will not be tested for Covid-19 unless a GP or healthcare worker advises you to have one.”

On Morning Ireland, Henry stated that the HSE didn’t plan to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing for hospitals but that it was up to individual hospitals to set their own policies based on the rates of Covid in their local areas.

He added that it was essential to get vaccinated once the vaccine programme resumes in order to prevent the health system being overwhelmed in the winter.

“Last winter, we saw a surge in Covid-19 cases, which coincided with a particularly high surge in influenza and RSV, and it placed healthcare systems right across the world under extraordinary pressure,” he said.

“The best thing we can do at this stage, in addition to the plans we have for enhanced cooperation between our community services and our hospital services in preparation for the winter, is to maximize the impact of our vaccination program for Covid-19.”

“The booster will be available from the end of September for those aged 50 or over, those who have weakened immune systems, under-5s, people with underlying conditions and healthcare workers,” he said.

“There’s no reason based on evidence to date, that the vaccine will be any less effective on this variant because it’s a variant of Omicron.”