LAST UPDATE | 15 Dec 2021

HEALTH MINISTER STEPHEN Donnelly today announced that the booster vaccine regime is to be ramped up significantly in a bid to stop the nation’s hospitals becoming overwhelmed by the Omicron variant. 

People in their 40s will start to receive the date for their jab next week, with the actual vaccination happening another week later. 

The Government has also taken on advice which will see the removal of the 15 minute post-jab observation period in the hope that this will speed up the immunisation process. 

Addressing reporters this evening, Donnelly also said that there is data modelling which suggests that hospitalisations as a result of the Omicron wave could eclipse those caused by the previous Delta strain. 

The following steps are being taken to make the rollout of the booster as quick as possible: 

• Extending the hours of our Vaccination Centres from 8am to 8pm 7 days a week, operating both walk-in and appointment-based clinics;
• Increasing capacity in Vaccination Centres 
• Opening of new Vaccination Centres including, Richmond Barracks in Dublin, RDS in Dublin, and a further centre opening in Cork City in early January;
• Expanding GP Practice participation from over 75% to full participation nationwide
• Increasing the number of pharmacies participating in the programme to 700 this week and aiming to further increase to 1000 participating pharmacies; 
• Commencing the primary vaccination of high-risk children aged 5 – 11 on 20 December
• Enhanced support from the Defence Forces and other areas of the public service providing a range of supports in vaccination centres.

Earlier today. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) may issue new recommendations on social mixing and close contacts after it meets tomorrow.

Varadkar was speaking today following a briefing between the three coalition leaders, the Chief Medical Officer and other senior members of NPHET last night, which was described as “constructive”.

He said that NPHET may recommend new curbs on social gatherings and international travel, as well as changes to the close contact management system in the run-up to Christmas.

“I would expect more recommendations around the management of close contacts, recommendations to decrease the amount of social mixing, and recommendations around international travel,” said Varadkar, speaking to the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

He added that the new Omicron variant, which accounts for 14% of all cases in Ireland, is likely to become the dominant strain by early next week.

He said that if restrictions are needed to protect people’s lives and public health, the government will introduce them.

“If it is the case restrictions are required to protect life and public health, then that’s what we will do.”

Varadkar added that it is “frustrating, depressing and disappointing” but necessary for the Government to change plans due to the Omicron variant.

GP services

It comes as GPs are planning on delaying all non-essential work until the new year to focus more heavily on the booster vaccine rollout over Christmas.

Mary Favier, Covid advisor to the Irish College of General Practitioners, has said that GPs will be working to double the number of booster vaccines they will administer in the coming weeks, but this will be at the expense of normal GP services.

“GPs are delivering a significant number of booster vaccinations already, between 75,000 and 85,000 a week, but we’re now going to try and double that in the next one, two and three weeks with an all-out push to put booster jabs in people’s arms,” said Favier, speaking to Morning Ireland.

Under plans detailed to Cabinet yesterday, there will be more staffing resources, more GPs and pharmacies delivering the jabs and 40-49-year-olds will receive a date shortly for when they can receive their booster. 

With the move to increase boosters, Favier says that non-essential work is being pushed back until the new year

“We’re going to try and delay all non-essential, non-immediate work until the New Year, well into the New Year and divert all but urgent work into giving boosters.”

When asked whether or people should visit GPs, Favier said that people should evaluate whether or not it could wait until the New Year, but that they should not ignore significant or worrying concerns.

GPs will be trying to do a lot of this vaccination during routine hours, but we’ll be doing out of hours, we’ll be doing weekends.

“It’s going to put a significant surge into the out-of-hours services, like the on-call services and unfortunately into the emergency departments… if in doubt, seek advice.”

Meeting with CMO

Meeting with coalition party leaders and CMO concluded at 9.40pm.

Leaders were updated on prevalence of Omicron. Described as a constructive discussion.

— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) December 14, 2021

It comes as the Taoiseach ruled out closing schools early for the Christmas break last night.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Six One News, Martin said it was not the intention of the government to close them early.

Yesterday, DCU Professor of Immunology, Christine Loscher said that it would be sensible for schools to shut early to allow for a long circuit breaker on the run-up to Christmas when inter-generational socialising is likely to be high.

Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne, Loscher said: “I think in terms of just being sensible and preparing for the best possible scenario after Christmas … I really think that we should consider closing schools on Friday.”

Every child then will have at least seven or eight days of very minimal exposure to the virus and other children and mixing, and those symptoms will actually come to the fore before Christmas.

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue told Newstalk Breakfast that schools will be reopened in January after the Christmas break.

The Journal understands that there was no discussion on the current situation with schools at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

Booster jabs

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris said that a “key measure” in the weeks ahead would be the booster vaccine.

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In total, there have been 1.3 million booster jabs administered since the rollout began in September, with the highest number of jabs in a day, 45,000, being administered yesterday.

“Anecdotally, I see people already altering their own behaviours, already making key decisions about how to keep themselves safe,” said Harris.

He added that anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 from today would still be in isolation on Christmas day.

“And that’ll be on everyone’s mind because people don’t want to spend Christmas in isolation. They want to be able to see their family, they want to be able to see their friends and they want to do it in a safe way.”

On RTÉ’s Prime Time last night, Minister for State Thomas Byrne said that three new vaccine centres would be brought online and that the booster programme would be “massively ramped up”.

Co-leader of the Social Democrats, Róisín Shortall, said that it was likely that the Omicron variant would become the dominant strain in Ireland and that the booster programme needed to be ramped up quickly in response.

“At the height of the vaccine programme during the summer we were doing about 400,000 a week. Last week we did just over half of that, 220,000,” said Shortall.

“Omicron is going to become the dominant strain by early next week, so speed is very much of the essence and for that reason, we need to ramp up the vaccination programme very quickly. “That means getting more staff into vaccination centres.”

Omicron variant

There were 4,235 new cases of Covid-19 reported today by the Department of Health, with 47 deaths notified in the past week.

Approximately 14% of our cases are due to the Omicron variant, said Holohan in a statement yesterday.

In line with the experience of many other countries, we can expect this proportion to rise rapidly over the coming days.

He added that the goal is to limit the spread of the virus through “our tried and tested preventative measures”.

“This means that as we move closer to Christmas, we must try to reduce the number of people we meet, avoid crowds and work from home unless it is essential to attend in person.”

Holohan encouraged anyone who is eligible for a booster vaccine to take the jab, saying that they have proven to be effective in “restoring protection against all variants of Covid-19″.

Additional reporting by Christina Finn and PA