A further 443 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the State, the Department of Health said on Saturday, as the number of vaccination doses administered nears 4 million.
Some 43 people were in hospital on Saturday with the coronavirus, 13 of whom were in ICU, the department said.
More than 40 per cent of adults in the State have been fully-vaccinated, according Prof Brian MacCraith, chairman of the Covid-19 vaccination task force.
The number of doses administered has exceeded 50,000 on each of the past four days, he said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Saturday evening that 4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were due to have been administered by Sunday night.
In a post on Twitter,he hailed “a wonderful national effort” by the HSE, the task force, health workers, volunteers “and all involved”.
Spectators returned to horse racing on Saturday, albeit a limited number, for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival. In another pilot event to test the easing of pandemic restrictions, a concert featuring Christy Moore is taking place in Killarney, Co Kerry.
In Northern Ireland, the first parkrun events since the start of the pandemic have taken place. The popular series of 5k runs were permitted to return following the easing of coronavirus regulations to allow up to 500 people to gather for outdoor exercise.
Before the pandemic, around 30 parkrun events took place across Northern Ireland. While most of the returning events began at 9.30am on Saturday, the Ormeau parkrun — one of the best attended in the region — did not take place due to concern it could attract more than the permitted 500 people.
An additional 298 Covid-19 cases were reported in Northern Ireland on Saturday.
Public health expert Kingston Mills said on Saturday that consideration should be given to allowing the more than 40 per cent of the population who have been fully vaccinated to resume aspects of normal life.
The professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin, said Ireland should at least consider following the Israeli model that allowed fully vaccinated people to visit restaurants, pubs, cinemas, gyms and theatres and other indoor public spaces at an early stage in the vaccine rollout there.
He pointed out Ireland now has about 40 per cent of the adult population fully vaccinated and said that percentage “could fill a lot of restaurants safely”.
Prof Mills said, however, that one issue might be that staff working in hospitality "tend to be younger so they would be slightly at risk if they are not vaccinated".
He said opening the country to the fully vaccinated coupled with targeted rapid antigen testing could have benefits, but he stressed the need to get people who have had one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine fully vaccinated quickly while also targeting younger cohorts with the vaccines that are available.
Speaking on the Brendan O'Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1, Prof Mills pointed to fresh international research that shows mixing vaccines works, with a "primer" AstraZeneca first dose and then a follow-up Pfizer booster producing dramatic results.
Prof Mills noted the vaccine programme had contained the pandemic and broken the link between infection and hospitalisation and said the key now was to prevent transmission of the virus, which, he said would require vaccinating 18- to 24-year-olds, where transmission rates are highest, as fast as possible.
“Right now the issue is not around hospitalisation, it is among transmission among younger people,” he said.
Prof Mills said that younger people should be offered the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He noted although there were serious clotting incidents linked to both vaccines among younger cohorts, the numbers were "very small one in a million [and] I think the benefits outweigh the risk."
Speaking to The Irish Times on Friday, Prof Mills said spare AstraZeneca vaccines should not be confined to older cohorts: “There is little rationale for confining it to the over-50s or the over-60s. If they are going to use it, they should use it in the whole population.”
Optimism
Prof Mills expressed optimism that as long as certain rules are imposed, international travel across the EU may be able to resume in the middle of July.
He said Ireland "in hindsight should not have been so lax on travel from the UK" and noted the UK had been too relaxed on travel from India in the spring – which has allowed the Delta variant to run rampant in the UK in recent weeks.
“There are still numbers of cases coming in through travel so we have to be careful,” he said, adding: “if travel is confined to those who have had the vaccine or recovered or who have had the appropriate testing then it is possible. The combination of vaccination and proper testing should permit safe international travel.”
Meanwhile, it has been announced that from Sunday, residents in Northern Ireland will be able to receive their first dose without prior appointment for the first time.
The North’s Minister for Health, Robin Swann, said vaccinations at the walk-in centre at the SSE Arena Belfast will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, though people can still register online for a guaranteed appointment. - Additional reporting PA
