Vaccines do not stop virus spread in the society as we expected before, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan revealed. The Covid vaccines helped to reduce hospital admissions and deaths, but they are not enough to stop virus spread among people, Dr. Holohan said at the briefing of National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Wednesday.
Covid vaccines are effective in reducing serious illness. But even vaccinated people are contracting with virus and the virus is being transferred to others from vaccinated people. It means that vaccines alone cannot help us defeat the pandemic. Basic health measures such as washing hands, wearing masks and self-isolation of symptomatic people are to be strictly followed, Holohan made it clear.
“In truth they are probably not performing as well as we might have hoped in terms of preventing transmission.”
“There is an impact on transmission by and to people who are vaccinated, but it’s not as great as we might like.”
“It is possible for people who are infected, and who were vaccinated, to be infected and to transmit that infection.” he pointed out.
Holohan also indicated bringing back tighter restrictions if the virus spread becomes severe in the country. No country in the world would be able to dispense with all Covid-19 restrictions through the process of vaccination alone, he added.
Yesterday it was 1,631 people who were contracted with corona virus in Ireland. 503 people are in hospitals and so far 5,436 Covid deaths have been reported in the country.