The period of time between people receiving the two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine is being increased to 28 days from the current 21 days.

The Health Service Executive, Ireland said the decision to increase the dose interval was taken following updated advice from the World Health Organization and the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) here.

In a statement, the HSE said "information about the vaccine and the programme is evolving, the WHO and NIAC recently provided updated advice, stating that the interval between the two doses has been increased from 21 days to 21-28 days."

As a result, the HSE said it has decided to implement the change for everyone receiving their first vaccine dose from next Monday, 18 January onwards.

The HSE said the move "will enable us to maximise our resources and vaccinate more people as new supplies of the vaccine come into the country".

Anyone who has already received their first dose of the Covid vaccine will still receive their second dose as originally planned after 21 days.