Coronavirus live: Ireland to exempt jabbed pupils from missing school; Japan set to extend state of emergency | World news

A troubling divide in Irish schools looks likely to emerge as unvaccinated children would have to take up to two weeks out of school if they were a close contact of a Covid-positive peer, but vaccinated children would not, the Irish Independent reports.

Despite the protection offered by the jabs, the children would still be able to contract and transmit the virus. The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, this week urged the health minister, Stephen Donnelly, that there should be no segregation or stigmatisation of children based on vaccination status.

It comes as parents and their children queued in the rain in Dublin over the weekend as the main rollout of Covid vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds began. About 75,000 children had been registered for an appointment by Saturday, 48 hours after they were able to book, and a number of centres administered jabs to children on Friday ahead of the full rollout.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has said it wants to vaccinate the 12-15 age group “rapidly and quickly”. Chief executive Paul Reid added that opening the vaccination programme to the cohort marked a “very strong point” of the country’s vaccine rollout.

From next month, it is planning to allow vaccinated children to be exempt from even taking a test if they are a close contact of a Covid case in school as long they have no symptoms.

Ireland’s Department of Education said this week that “there is no intention that any child would be [permanently] excluded from education on the basis they have not received a vaccine,” the Irish Independent reported. Unvaccinated teachers would be permitted to continue to work in schools.

The children, who need the consent of a parent or guardian to be vaccinated, are receiving Pfizer or Moderna jabs.

At the vaccine centre at Citywest in Dublin on Saturday, Bill Shelley, 14, and his 12-year-old sister, Rebecca, were among those who queued in the pouring rain for their jabs. Their father, Michael, afterwards expressed his relief that his children had received their jabs. “We’re very pleased, I’m delighted they’ve got their first vaccine,” he told PA.

“As parents, protecting them for their future health is one of the main reasons we’re here and keeping schools open is really important too. Really happy and really pleased – it went really well. We can’t thank the vaccinators and the team here enough.”

According to the most complete analysis of English data on children, 25 children and teenagers died as a direct result of Covid during the first year of the pandemic, and 6,000 children in hospitals also had the virus.

Hello and greetings to everyone reading, wherever you are in the world. Mattha Busby here to take you through the next few hours of global Covid developments. Thanks to my colleague Robyn Vinter for covering the blog up until now. Please feel free to drop me a line on Twitter or message me via email (mattha.busby.freelance@guardian.co.uk) with any tips or thoughts on our coverage.