Almost all vaccinated Covid-19 patients in ICU are immuno-compromised - Donnelly

The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has stated 98% of vaccinated Covid-19 patients in ICU are immuno-compromised. 

Minister Donnelly made the comment during a Morning Ireland segment today (November 17th) after being asked when vaccine boosters will be available for people over the age of fifty. 

He said, "We got great news on Monday night, we got the greenlight for people who are immuno-compromised of any age. We've already boosted or nearly fully boosted a lot of the highest risk groups. The next big group is the immuno-compromised. 

"Just to give your listeners a sense of how important this group is, about 81% of all Covid ICU patients are immuno-compromised. In fact, for the vaccinated, 98% of Covid ICU patients are immuno-compromised. So it's a really important group." 

The latest available data from the Department of Health states 614 Covid-19 patients are in hospital as of yesterday November 16th, with 114 of those patients in ICU. 

Minister Donnelly called the booster campaign "absolutely essential" and said the highest risk groups are largely done. 

He said, "The ones we had the green light for; longterm residential care, immuno-compromised and the over 80s. We're now moving quickly on to the over 70s, those in their 60s and healthcare workers." 

According to him, eighty thousand healthcare workers have been boosted already out of approximately 300,000. 

The minister was asked when antigen tests would be available cheaper than the current price of approximately eight euro per test. 

However, he could not give an exact date, instead stating it would be "very shortly".