Children aged five to 11 will receive Covid vaccine for the first time from Monday

Parents of kids in that age group were able to register in recent days and HSE chief Paul Reid said those vaccinations would commence at the start of the week.

Children in this age group who are not high risk themselves but live with a person considered high risk will also be able to start receiving the vaccine from tomorrow.

A HSE spokesperson said this weekend that they didn’t currently have data available on how many children had been registered so far but would release up-to-date data on Tuesday.

Parents of all other children aged between five and 11 will be able to receive vaccines from January 8th. They will be able to register them for a Covid-19 vaccine from Monday.

Children in this age group will be able to receive a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine if registered by a parent or guardian.

It will be the first time kids in this age category will be vaccinated following a decision to approve their use for young children taken in November.

The vaccine is a lower dose than Pfizer vaccine given to adults and children will be given two doses three weeks apart while those with a weakened immune system will get a third dose 28 days after their second dose.

The HSE said the vaccine can protect children with medical conditions from getting seriously ill and can also prevent rare cases where children with no serious health conditions get seriously ill.

“Most children who get COVID-19 have very mild symptoms or no symptoms, a HSE spokesperson said.

“But children who get COVID-19 need to isolate from other people even if their symptoms are mild. This is to stop the spread of the virus. They need to stay at home for at least 10 days from when they develop symptoms or test positive.”

Speaking during the week Director of Public Health, National Immunisation Office, Dr Lucy Jessop , said the side effects in children will be similar for those in adults and can include pain around the injection site, headaches muscle pain, fever, which she said can all be treated with rest and paracetamol.

Children aged between 12 and 15 have already been receiving their vaccine over recent weeks and around 70pc of those are now fully vaccinated.