ECDC credits Ireland with giving double the vaccine doses actually administered

The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) has credited Ireland with administering twice as many Covid-19 vaccines as it actually has.

According to the ECDC’s vaccine tracker published earlier today, Ireland leads the way in the EU for vaccine distribution, with over 10 per cent of the population covered.

The State has administered 438,006 vaccines to its population, according to the ECDC. It gave the same figure for the number of vaccines distributed to Ireland, and said 100 per cent had been administered.

However, this is at least twice the official figure published by Irish authorities. The Department of Health said this morning the number of first dose vaccines administered here was 147,700. Some 13,800 have received an additional second dose. Latest HSE figures show 199,800 doses have been administered - 150,800 first doses and 49,300 second doses.

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Over 220,000 people have been vaccinated in Northern Ireland, leading to online speculation that its figures had been added to the Republic’s on the vaccine tracker. The online tracker went off line at lunchtime as the errors were pointed out.

However the ECDC said it did not include figures from Northern Ireland. It said there appears to have been an issue with the data reported from Ireland which it was in the process of getting corrected.

Contacted about its figures, the ECDC said its vaccine tracker strived to give an overview of country efforts, providing data “that is as accurate as possible and as timely as possible”.

A spokeswoman said member states upload data at any time, but at least twice a week, and this can lead to “discrepancies” between figures.

She said the ECDC was constantly reviewing the quality and completeness of national data to address any possible inconsistency or discrepancy with data published in national reports.

“Data are subject to retrospective corrections; corrected datasets are released as soon as processing of updated national data has been completed.”

The HSE and the Department of Health have also been asked for the number of vaccines distributed here, though officials have said in general doses are administered as soon as they are received.

The publication of detailed updates on vaccine rollout figures has been delayed by IT issues, the HSE has said.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said on Monday night he didn’t know exactly where the error had occurred but the figures clearly were not correct.