The Irish Kidney Association has written to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, appealing for transplant recipients and people on dialysis to be given urgent priority for Covid-19 vaccination.
The move follows growing concern over the mortality rate in this sector at the hands of the virus in Ireland in recent months, which is now estimated to be as high as 25%.
There are up to 5,000 people in Ireland who are either on dialysis or already have had a transplant and it is estimated that one-in-four is now under threat, yet the vast majority of these people are placed at number 7 in the Government's list of vaccine category priorities.