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The Irish public have the power to weaken the coming Delta variant coronavirus wave, the Taoiseach has said.<\/p>\nThe Irish public have the power to weaken the coming Delta variant coronavirus wave, the Taoiseach has said.<\/p>\n
A refocus on personal behavior and responsibility can allow Covid-19 vaccines to rollout, reducing the impact of the variant and protecting progress already made, Miche\u00e1l Martin said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Reducing case numbers in the coming fourth wave can also reduce the degree to which the protective wall of vaccination around much of the population is breached, he said.<\/p>\n
A spike in cases driven by the Delta variant, first identified in India, is projected for August.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it will be different in its impact to previous waves, as we\u2019ve seen, every phase of this is different to the previous phase,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learn lessons from the previous phases. We have far more of the population vaccinated now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what I would say to people is to be vigilant, to refocus in terms of our personal behavior. It can be difficult, and people are tired of the pandemic, that I understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if we all refocus in terms of our own personal responsibilities and personal behaviors, we can go a long way to mitigate the impact of the Delta variant, whilst we roll out the vaccination program and try and maintain what we\u2019ve already achieved so far this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the volume of cases worries me in terms of what we\u2019re hearing from the United Kingdom, in terms of the number of cases that can occur in the unvaccinated population, and the degree to which that high volume of cases could penetrate the wall that the vaccine gives us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach said it remains to be seen how severe the impact of the Delta wave will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interesting issue will be the link between volume of cases and hospitalization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take more time to establish with precision what that will be. We are concerned about it, and I\u2019m concerned about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that said, we have significant numbers of the population vaccinated, we\u2019re going to really accelerate that in the coming month.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Martin also confirmed that Ireland has approached other European countries for excess vaccines, after agreeing a deal in principle for one million unwanted mRNA jabs from Romania.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank the Romanian president for his engagement with me on this. He said, as a measure of simple solidarity is what he said to me, he was willing to help Ireland,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had pointed out that, given our geographical position to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, in terms of the higher cases arriving there in terms of Delta variant, and our high uptake of vaccine, that we needed additional supplies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he responded in that regard. We had an agreement in principle, we\u2019ve also reached out to others. I\u2019m not going to comment again until we can bring those to a conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n