James Cox
The Health Service Executive says it expects to have given 30 per cent of the population a first dose by the end of this weekend - and inoculate 240,000 next week.
A record 45,000 vaccines were administered across the country on Friday.
The latest HSE figures show it was made up of 33,000 first doses and 12,000 second doses.
However, it is understood the rollout programme will need to speed up dramatically if the Government's target of administering 80 per cent of people with a first dose is to be met by the end of June.
Restricted use
Immunology Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Kingston Mills, believes the decisions to restrict the use of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson will have an impact.
Prof Mills told Newstalk: “The restriction of the AstraZeneca vaccine effectively to 60s and 70s and the Johnson & Johnson to over 50s has been a significant compromise. I think myself it was a little conservative, especially for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Numbers of cases of blood clotting was relatively low, one in a million, but it does mean the vaccine will not be available for the younger cohort.”
One further Covid-19 related death and 402 additional cases were confirmed in the Republic on Sunday.
There has now been a total of 4,906 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland along with a total of 249,838 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the State.
Of the cases notified today:
- 220 are men/182 are women.
- 79 per cent are under 45 years of age.
- The median age is 31.5 years old.
- As of 8am today, 127 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 41 are in ICU. Six additional Covid-19 cases have been recorded in Irish hospitals in the past 24 hours.
As of April 30th, 1,572,779 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the State:
- 1,130,958 people have received their first dose.
- 441,821 people have received their second dose.
