Booster jabs for healthcare workers will be considered today when the National Immunisation Advisory Committee meets.
It comes as 3,500 health staff are out of work due to covid related illnesses, a figure that has almost doubled in the past 10 days.
The HSE says the issue’s putting pressure on the health service.
508 covid patients are also in hospital and 93 are in ICUs – three of these are in the local unit with seven others elsewhere at St Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny.
DCU Professor of Health Systems, Anthony Staines, says booster shots for health workers are needed, “Certainly there are a lot of reports of health care workers now falling ill, in some cases falling ill for the second time, and this is causing a problem in staffing in the health service so I think there is a case for booster shots in health care workers”.
Meanwhile, children return to schools today following the mid-term and the Chief Medical Officer’s reminding parents to keep them at home if they have symptoms.
