People have been advised not to get invasive cosmetic treatments including fillers two weeks before or after receiving their vaccination against Covid-19.

The advice comes from Patricia Molloy, vice-president of the Cosmetic Nurses Association of Ireland.

Ms Molloy, who runs the Dermaclinic in Monkstown, told the Sunday Independent people should not delay having their Covid injections by making cosmetic treatments their first priority.

“It’s the time of year when people are booking in for treatments given that we have been closed since December, so I would say to people they should most definitely reschedule for safety’s sake,” she said.

“I am turning anyone away who comes in and says: ‘Yeah I am due to have the vaccine in two weeks.’ We tell them not to take the chance, wait until you get your date from the HSE or your doctor and then rebook it two weeks after that.”

She added: “I have had one or two people saying ‘I will have the treatment and delay my vaccine’ and we are advising against that.

“This week alone I would have turned away four or five people who didn’t read our message and weren’t aware of the fact, but we are checking everyone coming in the door that they are within the safe period of time.”

Ms Molloy said cosmetic clinics are also issuing consent forms for clients to confirm they haven’t had their vaccines and they won’t have a vaccine for two weeks before or after their treatment.

Explaining the decision, she said: “You shouldn’t have any invasive treatment like Botox or fillers for two weeks before and two weeks after your vaccine.

"The main reason for this is that we just don’t know enough about the vaccine yet in relation to the immune system and because we know the immune system is heightened after you have a vaccine.

“if you were ever to have a reaction to any of these treatments it would be the very time that your body would reject them — purely because it’s something foreign going into your system.”

She added: “It’s not that these treatments are any more dangerous — they are not, they are very safe — but at the time of having the vaccine your immune system is heightened and it could reject anything.”

Ms Molloy pointed to a number of recorded cases where facial swelling happened in people who had been given the Moderna vaccine.

She said: “The WHO [World Health Organisation] have notified the companies that produce the products and that is why this has come down the tracks to clinics.

“Even though there isn’t a huge amount of clinical data there is an incidence of this happening, and so for the sake of two weeks either side, it really shouldn’t be an issue. People should wait.”

Cosmetic clinics have been opened for the last nine weeks after being closed since December.

This summer marks the first time people have booked treatments this year. In recent months the US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee noted lip fillers and cosmetic facial fillers have prompted bad reactions.

Anyone with fillers could experience swelling and inflammation; several trial participants experienced side effects.

It has been reported patients who received the Moderna vaccine had swelling in the area the filler was placed.

Two patients had cheek filler six months before and one had lip filler two days after. The reactions were quickly resolved with medical attention and easily treatable with steroids and anti-histamines.