The Covid death-in-service scheme was set up by the Government and provides an ex-gratia payment of €100,000.
Around 20 health staff are reported to have had a Covid-related death, mostly during the early part of the pandemic.
A Department of Health spokesperson said Pobal is responsible for the administration of the scheme.
As of October 9, Pobal had received 17 applications in respect of the scheme.
Fifteen of those have been approved for payment by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Pobal is awaiting further documentation from the remaining two applicants.
The scheme covers deceased healthcare workers who were designated “essential” during the first phases of the pandemic. This includes GPs and other medical staff working in primary care, as well as administrative staff.
It also includes disability services staff and private staff in nursing homes and throughout the healthcare system.
This payment is in addition to any other arrangements a person may have had in place.
For example, HSE employees may be entitled to an injury grant based on a multiple of their salary or benefits that may be payable on death and which does not affect their legal rights.
There have been 9,336 probable and possible Covid-related deaths in Ireland since the start of the pandemic in 2020, with 20 notified in the last week.
Despite the arrival of a new variant named XEC, the number of cases fell during the second week of this month. There were 327 cases notified, a 20pc decrease from the previous week.
Eighteen cases were reported in babies under a year old and 117 cases in people over 80.
The number of hospitalisations fell by 23pc to 134.
Intensive-care admissions and deaths remained low, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said.
The KP.3.1.1 strain is the dominant sub-lineage, accounting for 59.9pc of samples analysed in recent weeks.
Viral loads in wastewater remain stable in most catchment areas.
Covid outbreaks remained stable and a total of 35 outbreaks were reported across all HSE regions.
They included 13 in nursing homes and 10 in hospitals. One flu outbreak was reported in a nursing home.
Covid booster vaccines are now available to at-risk groups, including healthcare workers, but overall take-up remains low.
The XEC strain is a combination of two other variants, KP.3.3 and KS.1.1.
The new variant has been described as the great-grandchild of Omicron, so while it is seen as more transmissible, it is not described as causing serious disease. However, the virus remains a threat to vulnerable groups and can make them sicker.
Reports to date suggest that the symptoms it causes are the same as those seen in people infected with the more recent variants, including sore throat, cough, fatigue and aches.
