Vaccine passes could be needed for hospital visits, Leo Varadkar suggests

The Tánaiste said hospital visitors using vaccine passes makes "a lot of sense".

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has suggested that vaccine passes could also be needed for those visiting hospitals. Speaking at Government Buildings on Wednesday (27 October), the Tánaiste said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the HSE were working on "operationalising" the measure and "making it practical". "Minister Donnelly is working with the HSE on the issue of vaccine passes for people visiting in hospitals," Varadkar said. "I think it does make a lot of sense, hospitals are full of vulnerable people who are immunocompromised and we don’t want them getting the virus. Hospitals are also full of people with the virus as well. "So, I think anything we can do to reduce the risk of the virus being introduced to hospitals makes sense to me." Varadkar said the measure would "not necessarily" be about stopping people visiting hospitals but rather about "facilitating safe visits". "Because nobody wants to be responsible for bringing the virus into a ward or into a nursing home," he added. "So, Minister Donnelly and the HSE are now working on operationalising that and making it practical." 1,631 more cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland on Wednesday. As of 8am on Wednesday, 503 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 101 are in ICU. It was also announced there has been a total of 5,436 deaths related to Covid-19 notified in Ireland, including 67 deaths newly notified in the past week since last Wednesday. "Unfortunately our cases, our incidence and the numbers in hospital and ICU are all continuing to increase," Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said during a Department of Health briefing. During the briefing, the Deputy CMO also said people could trick or treat safely this Halloween if they take "basic precautions". Main image via Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie