From today (Thursday, 25 November), the HSE will operate walk-in booster COVID-19 vaccination clinics for healthcare workers and people aged 60 to 69 who have already completed their primary course of COVID-19 vaccine.
COVID-19 vaccines offers protection against hospitalisation and severe illness from COVID-19, but this protection may weaken over time. Infections and illness in people who are fully vaccinated can happen.
We encourage everyone to avail of your booster dose, as it gives you the best protection from serious illness caused by COVID-19.
People in these groups can attend one of the dedicated walk-in clinics at participating vaccination centres around the country without an appointment. See times and locations of the walk-in vaccination centres here. Unfortunately, walk-ins cannot be accommodated outside of the published times in order to ensure other clinics and appointments can continue on schedule.
What to bring?
Please bring a photo ID with you. ID can include one of the following: passport, driver’s licence, Garda age card, student/school ID etc., but if your ID doesn't include your date of birth, please bring proof of your DOB (e.g. your Birth Cert).
If you are a healthcare worker, please also bring evidence of your place of work as you will not be able to get your booster dose without it.
What vaccine is available?
If you are 30 years or older you will be offered a single dose of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna) vaccine. If you are 29 years or younger you will be offered a single dose of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. You can get these vaccines even if you got a different type vaccine for your primary course (AstraZeneca, Janssen, Pfizer or Moderna).
The booster dose should be given at a minimum of a five month interval from a person’s last dose of a primary COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca) so please ensure you are at least 5 months post second dose as this will be checked at the vaccination centre, and a minimum of three months if you received a Janssen vaccine.
If you had COVID-19 since you were vaccinated, you should get your booster dose at least six months after your positive COVID-19 test result. More information on the COVID-19 booster vaccine is available here.
Scheduled appointments for current groups continue
As part of the booster COVID-19 vaccine programme, if you are aged 60 to 69 years or a healthcare worker, we continue to issue scheduled appointments for you to attend at a vaccination centre. People will receive a text message to attend the appointments for their booster dose and we encourage everyone to attend these scheduled appointments, or to use the instructions in the text to change them.
What about other groups of people?
GPs continue to offer booster dose appointments to people 70 years and over. Some GPs may refer patients to a vaccination centre and you should receive an appointment shortly. You may also attend one of our specific booster clinics if you wish to receive your booster COVID-19 vaccine.
People with high-risk health conditions and people aged 50-59 will be invited for their booster next. When it is time for your vaccination you will get a text message from the HSE with a vaccination centre appointment.
We are also strongly urging those who have not yet receive a primary COVID-19 vaccine dose, to consider attending one of walk in clinics for dose 1 or dose two of the vaccine, which continue to operate or register for an appointment here.
