Covid 19 Vaccination Progamme
Category : Boarding , Early Intervention , Further Education , Post Primary , Primary , Principal's News , School Events
The HSE continue to rollout the COVID-19 vaccination programme and with over 90% of those aged 12 years and above fully vaccinated. For anyone aged 12 and over who hasn’t had their COVID-19 vaccine yet; dose 1 or 2 they can register on https://vaccine.hse.ie/ for an appointment in a HSE clinic. People can also talk to their GP or local pharmacy about getting their COVID-19 vaccine. Booster clinics are also open for eligible people aged 16 years and older. Visit www.hse.ie for more information.
COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommends parents and guardians consider vaccinating their 5 to 11-year-old children. COVID-19 vaccine is particularly recommended if children:
· Have a health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19
· live with a younger child or adult who is at risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19 e.g. another child with complex medical needs, or an immunocompromised adult The vaccine that will be offered to children aged 5 to 11 years is Comirnaty® Children’s formulation.
Children in this age group will be given a smaller dose of the vaccine than adults.
Parents and guardians can register their child for their vaccine online at https://vaccine.hse.ie/.
As part of this stage of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, information for people considering vaccinating their children including information about the benefits and risk of vaccination and information about how to get vaccinated is available on https://bit.ly/HSEC19511
A cartoon strip has also been developed to help children understand what will happen when they go to a HSE clinic to get their COVID-19 vaccine https://bit.ly/C19Cartoon511
Getting COVID-19 vaccines with other vaccines NIAC advises that children aged 5 to 11 years wait at least 2 weeks between getting a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, like the flu vaccine or 4 in 1 and MMR vaccines. Children aged 2 to 17 years can get the free nasal flu vaccine through participating GPs and pharmacies until the end of this month. Information about the flu vaccination programme is available on the HSE website at www.hse.ie/flu. A list of pharmacies giving flu vaccines is also available on https://bit.ly/PhFluFinder Children in Junior Infants may also be due their 4 in 1 and MMR vaccine, school teams will work with your school to ensure where possible the vaccination programme continues and children whose parents have consented for them to receive 4in1 and MMR vaccine can do so.
Consent Only parent(s) and legal guardian(s) are entitled to provide consent for vaccination for students under 16 years of age. A video covering information about consent is available from our office YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/vE1X5AcwNgE
Further information on COVID-19 vaccines we recommend visiting the HSE website www.hse.ie/COVID19Vaccine.
Eimear O’Rourke M.Ed
Principal
