Ireland is on track for a major easing in restrictions from October 22 as we edge closer to normal life amid the ongoing pandemic.
While vaccination rates remain high across the country, with 90% of adults fully dosed and 92.5% partially covered, the numbers needing hospital treatment are coming down.
Since September 3, the HSE made the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine available to children aged 12 to 15 ahead of a return to school, and there has since been a huge pick-up among that age group.
Professor Kingston Mills, an Immunologist at Trinity College Dublin told the Irish Mirror, that it will now be those under 12 that will be at most risk as we head towards a full reopening.
He said cases among the older generations have fairly well been dealt with, and because many are now vaccinated, their symptoms if they catch the virus are very mild.
“The numbers here are going down, we're predominantly now seeing cases in younger generations, the unvaccinated, and a small number of vaccine breakthroughs, so it’s pretty much under control in the older population,” he explained.
“I think the risk is the school children, especially under 12’s who are not going to be vaccinated, or at least in the short term they’re certainly not going to be vaccinated, so that’s going to become the dominant group.”
The majority of cases being reported at the moment are among 5-12-year-olds according to the professor who says we can expect to see a further hike in numbers however, the majority of infections will be mild due to their age.
“60% of all cases in the last two weeks were in the 5-12-year-old age group and that was the largest number of cases in any age group so that's going to increase further as the weeks go on because as more people get vaccinated in the other age groups they will be protected whereas the 5-12s won’t be and so will be the most susceptible population.”
Professor Mills went on to say that “if we can get up to 95% vaccination, in the 12 and over we will be in a very good place, and then the chances of getting another surge are minimised.
“We will definitely have more cases in the under 12s, there's no shadow of a doubt about that, but a lot of those will be very mild and there are even suggestions that some of them won't even transmit it because it’s so mild.
“There are small numbers that will get more severe illness and some could even be hospitalised so that’s the biggest risk - for the under 12s.”
