Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be here to discuss the current situation in respect of Covid. As Members will be aware, all remaining mandatory public health measures were removed on 28 February. As recommended by our medical advisers, we have transitioned from regulation and population-wide restrictions to a focus on public health advice, personal judgment and personal protective behaviours.

The overall situation is improving. The number of people receiving general hospital care has fallen. However, we continue to have high levels of infection and a significant number of cases in hospitals. The total number of Covid-19 cases in hospital increased from approximately 600 to approximately 1,600 through March. The burden this has placed on patients and healthcare workers has been relentless. I wish to acknowledge the ongoing efforts across the healthcare system during these times. Thankfully, in line with a reduction in case numbers, there has been a reduction in the number of Covid patients in hospital. The number has fallen from 1,600 to 1,333 this afternoon.

Of those in hospital with Covid, approximately half are there because of Covid, with the other half categorised as asymptomatic infectious. When it comes to the patients in intensive care with Covid, approximately one third of them are there because of Covid. That number has fallen significantly in the past month. Importantly, of those with Covid in hospital, only two in five have had a booster vaccine, while approximately half of those in ICU with Covid have had a booster vaccine. To give a sense of how this works out, there were recently 1,600 Covid patients in hospital but the number of them who were in hospital on that day because of Covid and who had been boosted was a much lower figure of 370. Similarly on a particular day there were approximately 50 patients in ICU with Covid, but only 18 of them were there because of Covid and only nine of those had been boosted. That underlines how essential it still is that people get their booster vaccine. It is one of the three main public health messages right now: first, get your vaccine or booster; second, if you have symptoms, stay at home for 48 hours until those symptoms have largely resolved or, if you have a positive test, stay home for seven days; and, third, wear a mask in the appropriate settings, including public transport, crowded spaces, healthcare settings, nursing homes or while visiting a person who is at higher risk for Covid.

The current BA.2 sublineage is now the dominant variant in Ireland, accounting for approximately 95% of all cases. There has been an overall reduction in PCR testing volumes and test positivity, which is an encouraging sign, while the total daily number of positive antigen tests has also decreased.

As regards vaccination, more than 10.7 million doses have now been administered, including nearly 3 million booster doses. We have a very high vaccine and booster rate which has obviously been essential in our national response. However, there are still approximately 700,000 men and women aged 16 or older who have had their first two doses, so are very much in favour and supportive of boosters, but have not yet had their booster vaccine. A large part of that is because so many people got Covid a few months back and there has to be a three-month wait between having had Covid and getting the booster. It is really important that those 700,000 people get the booster as soon as they can. The booster uptake rate remains too low in younger groups. For example, a little over half of those aged 18 to 39 have had the booster. There is a host of initiatives going on to target these groups, including a high level of public communication and advertising.

As regards the paediatric vaccination programme, as of 27 March, approximately 120,000 first doses had been administered, with 101,000 fully vaccinated. More than 133,000 children aged five to 11 have now registered for a vaccination.

We are also working hard to address and support the health and other needs of Ukrainian refugees entering Ireland, including making sure they have full and rapid access to vaccinations.

As regards new and emerging treatments for Covid-19, a new therapeutics advisory group was established to evaluate, advise and recommend on all the therapeutics that could be used here. Therapeutics have been administered, though it is important to note that the treatments are not for widespread use.The benefit is limited to particular cohorts of higher risk, more vulnerable patients. My colleagues at the Department of Health through the office of the Chief Medical Officer and in conjunction with the HSE, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, and the National Virus Reference Laboratory, NVRL, continue to monitor the epidemiological profile of Covid-19 every day and the Government gets regular updates on that. As we move forward, the Government will continue to ensure that our response is agile and flexible, and that we can move quickly in response to any new emerging threat which obviously we are monitoring here and around the world very closely.