Dublin: Ireland became the latest European Union member country to commit to offering Covid-19 vaccines to children aged 12-15 when opening a highly subscribed program to 16 and 17 years on Tuesday.
The Irish Vaccine Program is currently running at one of the fastest rates in Europe, with almost 70% of his adult population is fully vaccinated and more than 84% are partly protected with two doses – greatly reducing serious disease levels and deaths from Covid -19.
The European Medicine Agency (EMA) has approved the Pfizer / Bionontech and Moderna vaccine for use in adolescents, encouraging UE member countries including France, Greece and Denmark to bring their vaccine age to 12.
The Irish government will be 12 to 15 years old.
Fully vaccinated in the first half of September, Secretary of State Simon Coveney told Rte’s national broadcaster.
Ireland has worked down the age group and will also be for the first time on vaccination this weekend to encourage young people who recently qualified to get the chance, said Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
“This represents the opening of our very significant vaccination program.
We want to encourage a high level of participation now between the remaining cohorts,” Martin told reporters.
The Delta variant that further transfers leads to the fourth wave of Covid-19 infection in Ireland, especially among young people, although the seven-day growth rate has shown tentative signs of the highlands in the past few days.
Ireland has reported 294,272 Covid-19 cases among 4.9 million populations, with 5,026 related deaths.