Buncrana in Co Donegal had the lowest level of take-up of first Covid-19 booster vaccinations with just over one in three people receiving the additional dose, new figures show.
Central Statistics Office data on vaccinations show Rathfarnham, Templeogue, Blackrock and Dundrum had the highest rates of booster vaccinations at 70 to 74 per cent of those eligible.
First booster doses are currently available to people aged 12 years and over.
Among children aged between five and 11, the rate of full vaccination with two doses ranged from 4 per cent in Buncrana to 53 per cent in Stillorgan, Dún Laoghaire and Rathdown in Dublin.
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On average, just over one in every five children in this age group have been fully vaccinated.
The latest CSO vaccination analysis covers the period up to the end of last month.
The take-up rate for second booster doses, currently available to people aged 65 and over and people with weakened immune systems, has been considerably lower than the first booster rate.
The average second booster take-up rate across all localities was 8.7 per cent with the average monthly increase in additional second doses standing at just 1 per cent across all local areas.
Among the local electoral areas with the lowest Covid-19 second booster rates are Blanchardstown, Mulhuddart, Tallaght South and Ongar, all in Dublin.
“This may in part be due to the population structure of these local electoral areas,” said Steven Conroy, statistician with the CSO.
Just 16 per cent of employees across all sectors were not fully vaccinated, according to an analysis of Revenue Commissioners taxpayer records and the HSE’s vaccine information system.
The hospitality and food services sector had the highest percentage of employees who were not fully vaccinated at almost one in four workers.
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Some 51 per cent of employees who are of eastern European nationality were not fully vaccinated. This nationality group had the lowest vaccine and first booster dose rates.
Just 5 per cent of Irish employees are not fully vaccinated, the analysis found. Irish employees had the highest take-up of first booster doses at 70 per cent of that nationality group.
Meanwhile, the director of the National Immunisation Office, Dr Lucy Jessop has repeated a call for the public to avail of the vaccines and booster for which they are eligible.
She told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that boosters were not designed to prevent infection, but they were effective at preventing people from becoming seriously ill, to require hospitalisation or die.
The Irish population, in general, had been “very engaged” with the vaccination programme, but there were still people who were eligible for the vaccine or the booster who had not come forward.
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) has now recommended a second booster to people aged 50 to 64 and people in the 12-49 age group who have underlying medical conditions or are residents of long term care facilities. A third booster has been recommended for people over the age of 65.
Details of how the vaccinations can be accessed will be announced shortly, she added.
To date 77 per cent of people aged over 18 had received their first booster, which was “really good,” she said, while 58 per cent of people aged over 65 had received their second booster.
“We would encourage any of those people who haven’t yet come forward to come forward,” she said.
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