Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed that children won’t need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to attend school this coming September.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Wednesday, July 28, the Health Minister outlined that it is “absolutely not on the cards and won’t be on the cards.”
This news comes after it was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday that children between the ages of 12 and 15-years will be offered a Covid-19 vaccine via the HSE vaccination portal.
These new developments followed the announcement by Stephen Donnelly on Monday, that 16 and 17-year-olds were going to be able to register for their Covid vaccine the next day.
“It's important that we continue to get as many of our population vaccinated as soon as vaccines are available and following the safety advice of our experts,” Donnelly wrote alongside the announcement on social media
However, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) for younger children have advised that a parent’s decision to accept, defer or refuse a vaccine for their child should be respected.
Commenting on the conversation around vaccine consent, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said, “parents will have the choice of course,” before going on to add that he did not want to put pressure on parents to consent.
To check out the HSE vaccine portal and register for your vaccine today, go to vaccine.hse.ie
