A former head of the HSE is urging people to attend walk-in Covid vaccination centres throughout the country today.
At least 16 are operating — allowing people to get their first or second doses.
They are for people over the age of 12, and they will get Pfizer or Moderna jabs.
Former HSE director-general, Tony O'Brien, says parents shouldn't be worried about getting their children vaccinated.
“If anybody does have any concern about the vaccine there’s lots of information on the HSE‘s website. And these vaccines have been so widely used now that there’s very strong evidence about their effectiveness and safety. So while I understand that people can always have some degree of hesitancy about taking a vaccine, now is the time to really consider, if the right time is to have that vaccine.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Covid-19 vaccination taskforce says 89 per cent of over-16s are now fully vaccinated.
The Government set a 90 per cent over-16s target as a key milestone before further pandemic restrictions can be lifted next month.
Professor Brian McCraith, chair of the High-Level Taskforce on Vaccination, says the programme is making huge progress.
Prof McCraith said: “A third major metric that we're pleased with is over 89 per cent over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated, you will recall that the Government has set its threshold for having 90 per cent of those over 16 fully vaccinated. We're just one per cent away from that at the moment.”
