Over 65s and immunocompromised should get 2nd booster 'as soon as possible' - Donnelly

A second booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is being recommended for immunocompromised people and those aged 65 years of age and older. 

The recommendation was made last night (Tuesday April 5) by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), who has given his endorsement. 

NIAC has also expressed the importance of children and adolescents aged 12 years to 15 years and older completing their primary course and receiving a booster dose, while those aged 5 to 11 years should complete a primary course of two doses. 

It comes as over 7,000 PCR and antigen tests were recorded as Covid positive yesterday (Tuesday April 5), with a positivity rate of 33.4% over the last seven days. 

Minister Stephen Donnelly said, "I welcome today’s update to Ireland’s vaccination programme. Covid-19 vaccines have achieved extraordinary success in preventing severe disease, hospitalisation and death. These vaccines continue to have a very good safety profile with hundreds of millions of doses administrated globally.

"Those who are unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated continue to be disproportionality affected and account for approximately a third of hospitalisations for Covid-19. As such, I urge anyone for whom an additional dose of vaccine has been recommended, or anyone yet to receive their primary course or booster vaccine do so as soon as possible." 

Today we're announcing that those aged 65 years and older and those who are immunocompromised should receive a further booster dose of COVID-19 Vaccine following advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee. pic.twitter.com/h364UG0xfE

— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) April 6, 2022

According to Ireland's Covid-19 informational hub, 2,932,352 people have received booster shots of the vaccine so far, with 189 administered to immunocompromised people on April 4. 

A total of 119,721 doses of vaccine have been administered to Ireland's immunocompromised people since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Minister Donnelly concluded: "I have asked the NIAC to continue to actively examine the evidence regarding the likely benefit of a second booster to other groups, vaccine choice and interval in order to make further recommendations in this regard."