A new vaccine will as of Monday be given to all eight-week-old babies and will be added to the national immunisation schedule, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Saturday. 

The new pneumococcal vaccine protects against pneumonia, meningitis as well as ear diseases. It comes in three doses and costs around €200, though it will be administered free-of-charge.

Healthcare centres will resume vaccination services on Monday, as part of relaxed coronavirus containment measures announced on Friday.  

Fearne urged people not to miss appointments, saying that the number of those getting their MMR - Measles, Mumps, Rubella - vaccine, for instance, had gone down by half in recent months. 

It was therefore crucial, he said, that people try to not miss appointments and get their children vaccinated.

Though still early, Fearne said that a public drive for people to take the yearly influenza vaccine would begin earlier this year, in around October, as authorities also had the coronavirus to deal with. 

A vaccine for the novel virus, he said, might not be available until next year and so getting vaccinated against the influenza was extremely important.