Vaccinated person is in ICU over ‘breakthrough’ infection
Minister highlights need for second jab
ONE fully vaccinated person has been admitted to intensive care due to a ‘breakthrough’ infection, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has revealed.
He said the case highlights the importance of the vaccination programme and the second dose for people.
While all the vaccines currently in circulation are highly effective at preventing severe cases of Covid-19 they are not, like all vaccines, 100% effective, which means ‘breakthrough’ cases can occur.
Mr Donnelly said only 124 people have been admitted into ICU with Covid since the beginning of April following an analysis.
‘The vast majority of those didn’t have any vaccine protection. But most encouragingly, only one of the cases was a so-called breakthrough infection. Somebody who was fully vaccinated,
‘Hospitals are the last line of defence’
14 days after their second dose,’ he told Newstalk radio.
‘What that is saying is that everyone who can, should go and get a vaccine. Anyone who has had their first vaccine, it’s really important to go and get a second dose,’ he said.
As of yesterday, the HSE’s online registration portal opened to everyone aged 30 and above, with people aged 18 to 34 being able to avail of the singledose Johnson & Johnson vaccine from local pharmacies.
All this comes following several days of higher case numbers as concerns over the prevalence of the Delta variant continue to rise.
The five-day moving average now stands at 580 cases per day.
According to HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid, there have been 4.7million vaccines administered with 56% of the adult population being fully vaccinated and 71% partially vaccinated.
‘We’re now ranking as the highest in the world for the last seven days of vaccines administered per 100 of the population. That is primarily our first line of defence, testing and tracing the second line of defence,’ he told RTÉ’s This Week.
Even though Covid-19 cases are down in hospitals, Mr Reid said they are in fact ‘extremely busy’ due to several factors.
He said some of the issues are around people delaying seeking care during Covid now presenting. Issues still persist from the cyber attack on the HSE’s IT systems, particularly in relation to communication with GPs and diagnostics.
‘Ultimately, we are getting back to non-Covid care on people and addressing the backlog associated with non-Covid care. So they are busy but I think we should always remind the public, hospitals are the last line of defence in terms of dealing with Covid,’ Mr Reid added.
This day next week is the next major milestone for reopening, when the Government is set to introduce the Covid Digital Certificate to allow travel within the EU as well as the resumption of indoor dining for vaccinated people.
Mr Reid said from a HSE perspective they welcome the ‘very pragmatic’ approach the Government is taking in reopening the rest of society.
‘From a health service perspective, long-term restrictions, lockdowns of the community, of enterprise and business is not good for the health service either.
‘So we would welcome this being done very pragmatic,’ he said.
Mr Reid said they would have ‘huge concerns’ over any large scale lifting of restrictions such as what is happening in Britain from next week.
‘I think the approach the Government is working to here is a more planned and pragmatic approach and we would welcome it but again urging the public to be really careful in the next few weeks,’ he said.
In the event of outbreaks of cases in the coming weeks, Mr Reid said the HSE is planning on utilising antigen testing in order to potentially catch close contacts.
‘More planned and pragmatic’