It will now be up to the HSE to operationalise the recommendation.
New advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) could see the over 60s age group in Ireland fully vaccinated earlier than anticipated.
NIAC has recommended to allow the gap between the first and second AstraZeneca vaccine dose to be cut from 12 weeks to eight.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan has written to the HSE and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly outlining the NIAC advice and it will now be up to the HSE to operationalise the recommendation.
The change would see people in their 60s, health workers, and many people with underlying conditions being vaccinated a month earlier than expected, but it remains unclear how it will come into effect.
It comes as Public Health England (PHE) said last Saturday that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was roughly 88% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 from the variant, two weeks after the second dose.
Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca vaccine was 60% effective against symptomatic disease caused by the variant.
Both vaccines were found to be 33% effective against symptomatic disease from B.1.617.2, three weeks after the first dose, compared to roughly 50% effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 variant.
Researchers first discovered the new “Delta” variant, with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system, in India.
In 15-20% of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62% of cases in the country), a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus had been detected.
The double mutation is concerning because it is located in the spike protein of the virus, which is the part it uses to penetrate human cells.
Spike proteins attach via receptor binding domains, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells.
However, the newer mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it fit better to human cells, an issue as it means the virus can gain entry into the cells easier and multiply faster.
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