DUBLIN, July 27 (Reuters) - Ireland became the latest
European Union member state to commit to offering COVID-19
vaccines to children aged 12-15 as it opened its strongly
subscribed programme to 16 and 17-year olds on Tuesday.
Ireland's vaccine programme is currently running at one of
the fastest rates in Europe, with almost 70% of its adult
population fully vaccinated and more than 84% partially
protected with the first of two doses - greatly reducing the
rate of serious illness and death from COVID-19.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the Pfizer
/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for
use in teens, encouraging EU member states including France,
Greece and Denmark to drop their vaccine age to 12.
The Irish government hopes those aged 12 to 15 will be fully
vaccinated within the first half of September, Foreign Minister
Simon Coveney told national broadcaster RTE.
Ireland has been working its way down the age groups and
will also for the first time open walk-in vaccination centres
this weekend to encourage recently eligible younger people to
get a shot, Prime Minister Micheál Martin said.
"This represents a very significant opening up of our
vaccination programme. We want to encourage high participation
rates now among these remaining age cohorts," Martin told
reporters.
The more transmissible Delta variant is leading to a fourth
wave of COVID-19 infections in Ireland, particularly among
younger people, although the seven-day growth rate has shown
tentative signs of plateauing in recent days.
Ireland has reported 294,272 COVID-19 cases among its 4.9
million population, with 5,026 related deaths.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton)