The rollout of the booster vaccination programme is to be accelerated as a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine could be given to people aged between 30 and 50 before Christmas.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the acceleration of the programme could mean people under 40 will receive their booster “very soon”.
However, people will still have to wait five months after their second dose of the vaccine to receive the third, meaning most people within the bracket will have to wait until early next year.
The news comes after the National Immunisation Advisory Committee approved the use of Covid vaccines for aged 5 to 11 on Wednesday.
The European Medicines Agency has approved a dose that measures approximately a third of the amount administered to people over the age of 12 for children in Europe.
The Government has encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated as case numbers have soared in recent weeks.
It said: "Vaccines should protect your child from getting seriously ill from Covid-19 if they have certain health conditions.
"It may also protect healthy children from:
mild to severe Covid-19 illness
multisystem inflammatory syndrome due to Covid-19
the risk of developing 'long Covid' symptoms, such as tiredness and fatigue
spreading Covid-19 to others
Children who are vaccinated will be less likely to miss school and other activities because of being ill with Covid-19."
Primary school children with underlying conditions, or who are living with a younger person, as well as those who are either living with immunocompromised adults or those who have serious medical needs, will be first in line to receive the jab.
A timeline on when children will receive the vaccine will be published in the coming weeks, with the HSE estimating the first delivery of 'lighter' jabs to commence as soon as next week.
Meanwhile, booster vaccines will begin to be administered to people over the age of 50 from Thursday.
Other groups, including people aged 60 or older, those living in a nursing home or a long-term healthcare facility, healthcare workers and people aged 16 to 59 with an underlying condition, are currently being given the booster.
The next groups to be offered the booster doses very soon are people aged 16 years and older who are pregnant, people aged 40 to 49 and those aged 16 to 39 will be called in stages, with older age groups being called first.
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