Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not the case that the booster vaccination infrastructure is just focused on the primary doses, which are dose one and two. It is important that we continue to do the vaccinations. Some 1,900 people came forward over the weekend for their first dose. That is good news. Those were people who may not have been easily accessed by the system, but they came forward to vaccination centres. We have to help people consistently to access our system. We have had a voluntary system so far. It has been spectacularly successful, if we are honest, for dose one and dose two, compared with other countries that are getting more hard line and mandatory in their approach, but are still at approximately 60%. We are at 90% plus. We just need to work with particular groups that may not have had the same degree of confidence in the vaccines as the general population has had. That is beginning to yield fruit. The vast bulk of the vaccinations now are booster vaccinations and over 600,000 have now been administered. The GPs were always the conduit for administering vaccines for the elderly cohorts of the population. As one moves down the age cohorts, there is greater utilisation of vaccination centres and healthcare workers as well. There is a variety of options for healthcare workers. There has been very good progress made in over 80s and over 70s - very good progress was made last week - and over 60s. The booster campaign is progressing apace. It will increase in capacity. One cannot go earlier than five months to get a booster. There is no clinical mandate from anybody to go earlier than five months. One has to wait for five months after the second dose before one gets the booster. The pharmacies are on board now. The pharmacies, the GPs and the vaccination centres are all on board with the booster campaign in particular. There is no issue with supply in the boosters.

On testing, we should acknowledge that last week and in the last seven days, 207,000 PCR tests were done. That is an extraordinary number in itself, given the size of our population. We have now been hitting 200,000. Every available mechanism is being used to increase capacity on PCR tests. We have also broadly widened participation in antigen testing, particularly through close contacts. There are now 3,000 close contacts per day being issued with free antigen tests. The schools, working with the HSE, on 29 November will begin the operationalisation of the use of antigen testing in school settings, where appropriate. We have used thousands and thousands on serial testing in agriculture. That figure is close to 150,000.

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