Experts to unveil decision over gap extension between jab doses in days

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly expects a recommendation about spacing out the gap between Covid-19 vaccines in the coming days. 

He said experts were examining how much of an impact extending the current four-week interval between doses to eight weeks “or even 12 weeks” would have. 

“The data that we are getting back from the vaccination programme in Ireland, and indeed right around the world is even the first dose, of these two-dose vaccines, is showing absolutely incredible positive signs in terms of reduction in cases and reduction in hospitalisations.”

He said public-health officials and the Covid-19 task force were looking at the issue at the moment. If a recommendation is in place, he said then obviously that was something that could be brought to Government.

The Irish Independent first reported on Saturday that advice on widening the interval for Moderna and Pfizer jabs was under consideration. Stretching the time between first and second doses would accelerate the rate at which people would get their first jab.

Mr Donnelly said the route to getting back to normality as quickly as possible was stopping variants coming into the country, suppressing the virus here, and having as efficient a vaccine programme as possible. 

Meanwhile, he also spoke on RTÉ’s This Week programme about the discovery of 77 UK cases of a Covid-19 variant first detected in India.

Last Thursday, Public Health England (PHE) revealed cases of a variant first detected in India, called B.1.617, had been found in the UK, with 73 cases in England and four in Scotland.

It has been described by public-health officials there as a ‘variant under investigation’ (VUI) rather than a ­‘variant of concern’ (VOC).

Mr Donnelly revealed he had spoken to Dr Ronan Glynn, the acting chief medical officer yesterday morning about the Indian variant. “It will be looked at this week,” he said. “We have to let the public-health experts look at the variant and come back with recommendations.

“We will let the experts look at the information from multiple sources and then come back with recommendations, and those recommendations can be discussed by Cabinet.”

Meanwhile, in relation to the number of cases of Covid-19 here, he said: “We are ahead of the best-case scenario we were given four weeks ago.”

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was yesterday notified of one additional death related to Covid-19, and 269 confirmed cases of the virus.

A total of 181 Covid-19 patients were being treated in hospital, the lowest level since last October, of whom 47 were in intensive care units. 

In a statement, Dr Glynn said: “We have already seen the fantastic impact of vaccination amongst our healthcare workers and in our nursing homes.

“However, the declining incidence across all age groups in recent weeks cannot be attributed to vaccination but rather to the enormous efforts of people across society to keep themselves and their families safe.

“If we can keep incidence relatively low over the coming weeks, vaccination will increasingly play a role in suppressing this virus.

“This will make it easier for all of us to balance the risks associated with Covid-19 while gradually easing public health measures.”

However, the new president of the Irish Medical Organisation has warned the fight against the virus is far from over, and doctors may be dealing with the fall-out for the rest of their careers.

Dr Ina Kelly, a public health specialist, said: “We are making progress certainly. We have largely succeeded so far in halting and rolling back the third wave of the virus here in Ireland, and the roll-out of vaccines gives us huge hope that we are – at least – at the beginning of the end of this phase of the pandemic.

“But the threat from Covid-19 is going to be with us for a long time to come, and as happens during pandemics, we can see now the threat posed by variants.”

 

Irish Independent