State set to surpass 1 million vaccine doses in coming days

More than 120,000 coronavirus vaccines were administered last week, the highest number in a single week so far, according to the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, Paul Reid.

Posting on social media on Sunday evening, Mr Reid gave a “huge thanks to all involved in vaccinations this weekend”. Good Friday saw the highest number of vaccines given in a single day, he said, with more than 30,000 people receiving a dose.

This week, the HSE expects to administer its one millionth dose, with more than 930,000 dispensed so far according to the latest update, Mr Reid added.

The rollout will continue to focus on people with underlying medical conditions that would put them at high risk of serious disease if they caught the virus.

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Official figures, which lag by a few days, show that 636,963 people – approximately 12.8 per cent of the population – had received their first dose of the vaccine by the end of Thursday last. About 5.2 per cent of people had been fully vaccinated, with 256,412 people given a second dose by then.

This compares to 4.2 per cent who were fully vaccinated one week earlier, while 11 per cent of the population had received a single dose at that stage.

Meanwhile, almost 5,500 swabs have been taken at the seven new pop-up Covid-19 testing sites intended for asymptomatic people living in areas with high rates of coronavirus infection.

Pop-up rates

HSE figures show the positivity rate across the pop-up sites as a whole, including those no longer in operation, is highest among 15-24-year-olds. Almost half (46 per cent) of attendees at the centres have been in the 25- 44 age bracket.

Three deaths and 457 new Covid-19 cases were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Easter Sunday. This followed the reporting of two deaths and 511 new cases of the virus on Saturday.

There have been a total of 4,718 coronavirus-related deaths in the State and a total of 238,148 cases of the virus reported since the pandemic began.

There were 58 people with the virus in intensive care on Sunday, a reduction of 10 on the previous week. Covid-19 hospitalisations were also down, with 242 people being treated for the virus in hospital on Sunday compared to 332 seven days ago.

The positivity rate coming from more than 124,000 tests conducted over the past seven days was 3.2 per cent, which compares to a rate of 3.4 per cent a week ago.

On Saturday, no new deaths and another 84 cases of the virus were reported in Northern Ireland. Figures were not released on Easter Sunday.