Ireland's booster rollout programme will be accelerated even further from next week.
Stephen Donnelly has confirmed that:
- Those aged between 30-39
- Anyone aged between 16-29 who received the Janssen/Johnson and Johnson vaccine
Will be offered a booster vaccine from next Wednesday (December 29).
Furthermore, all age groups will be opened up for booster jabs by January 10.
Mr Donnelly tweeted: "Further acceleration of our booster vaccination programme. For those aged 30-39 and those who received Janssen (ages 16-29) boosters will be available from next Wednesday/
"All remaining age groups will be opened up by the 10th of January. A super national effort
"Further details will be soon be made available by the Department of Health and the HSE. Thanks to all those involved who are making such an enormous contribution."
Almost half of Ireland's adult population has received a Covid vaccine booster, the Taoiseach has said.
The update from Micheal Martin came as the HSE warned that Ireland could soon be recording 20,000 confirmed cases a day in a worst case scenario.
Mr Martin said, as of Thursday, 49.9% of the adult population had been boosted, which is 37.4% of the whole population.
"Great work by staff and volunteers in our vaccine centres, GPs and pharmacists," he tweeted.
HSE chief executive, Paul Reid, said while hospital admission data showed that Ireland was exiting the Delta wave, the recent acceleration of positive case numbers demonstrated that the country was entering an Omicron wave.
"We are entering, unfortunately, an Omicron wave which we know has high transmissibility," he told RTE Radio One.
