Almost 20,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last fortnight, 83 per cent of whom were unvaccinated, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has said.

“While 17 per cent of these cases were in people who are doubly vaccinated, this is entirely in keeping with what we expect as an increasing proportion of our population get vaccinated,” he said in a statement last night.

“It’s important to remember that this does not mean vaccines are not effective. While they will not prevent every case, they provide excellent protection against severe disease and significantly reduce the risk of hospitalisation.”

Hospital Report

HSE chief executive Paul Reid yesterday said that more than 89 per cent of adults are partially vaccinated, with some 77 per cent are fully inoculated.

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Dr Holohan appealed to those awaiting a second dose or who recently received one to remember “you are not yet fully vaccinated”.

He said people who received the Pfizer vaccine would have to wait a week for fully vaccinated status and it was two weeks for those who received the Moderna, AstraZeneca and single-shot Janssen shot.

Niamh O'Beirne, the HSE's head of testing and tracing, said the figures in Ireland for infections among vaccinated people were similar to those from Public Health England, which found 17 per cent of new cases of the Delta variant in the four weeks to July 19th were in fully vaccinated people.

Social mixing

She said the increase in positive cases among vaccinated people – the rate had been about 7 to 8 per cent – could be a consequence of the rollout having got to younger people, who faced a greater risk from increased social mixing.

She said the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 who are fully vaccinated will rise as they become a greater share of the overall population.

There will, however, be a “much reduced knock-on effect” in terms of hospitalisations and ICU as a result of being fully vaccinated.

Ms O’Beirne said most people who are fully vaccinated and have Covid-19 are reporting only mild symptoms.

“Perversely it is a sign of a good vaccine rollout because you will get more cases when you have got more and more people vaccinated,” she said.

Ms O’Beirne said last weekend was the busiest since the height of the third wave in early January, with 23,000 swabs taken in community testing sites. The positivity rate is around 14 per cent, which she said was very high.

She said 22 per cent of positives were in the 15-24 age group that remains mostly unvaccinated.

Data breach

The Department of Health has told The Irish Times that 46 people died as a result of Covid-19 between the HSE data breach on May 14th and August 3rd.

Of those, 20 were aged 65 -74, nine were 55-64, seven were aged between 75-84 and five were over 85. Fewer than five deaths were recorded in people under the age of 54.

The largest number of deaths was recorded in HSE community health organisations (CHO) area 7 comprising of south and west Dublin and parts of Kildare and west Wicklow where 14 deaths were recorded.

CHO 8, which covers the counties of Laois, Offaly, Longford, Westmeath, Louth and Meath, and CHO 1 which covers Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan, recorded seven deaths each.

CHO 5 covering the areas of south Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and CHO 9 which is Dublin, north of the Liffey, had five deaths a piece.

All the other CHOs recorded less than five deaths each.