Almost 40,000 people are still waiting to receive their booster certs due to administrative errors, according to the Department of Health.
As The Irish Examiner reports, while the majority of booster certs have now been issued to the 2.7m people who received their jabs, some 40,000 are trying to resolve the issue through an overburdened helpline.
As of February 8th, the department said they had provided booster certs to everyone for whom the HSE provided data.
Out of 2.6m certs issued by email and post, less than 40,000 records are still affected by “admin errors or where incorrect email addresses were provided”, according to a Department of Health spokesperson.
Of the 2.7m people who have received their booster or additional vaccine dose in Ireland, 2.1m have been issued with an updated digital cert by email, while almost 570,000 have now been issued with a cert by post.
The department has said that certs still not issued are due to issues such as a person having received either a primary or booster dose abroad, or data not being sufficiently submitted by vaccinating GPs or pharmacists.
Updated certs
“In some of these instances, where a person who is eligible requests their new certificate from the service centre, they are automatically reissued the certificate of their primary vaccine course,” they said.
For the almost 40,000 left waiting for updated certs, many report frustration trying to contact the HSE to help resolve outstanding issues.
Brian Foody and his wife Gemma live and work in Western Australia, but have been home in Ireland since July due to a family bereavement.
They both got their boosters in January so that they could travel home to Australia when borders opened.
However, they are now at a standstill, as Gemma has still not received her updated booster cert.
“We both got our boosters here, and I got my cert in the mail no problem, but Gemma's didn't come through,” Mr Foody said.
