People queue inside a walk-in vaccination centre at the National Show Centre in Swords, Dublin (PA)
People queue inside a walk-in vaccination centre at the National Show Centre in Swords, Dublin (PA)
Ireland has administered more than two million Covid-19 jabs in six weeks, health officials have said.
In excess of 1.5 million of those 2.1 million jabs were given out in July.
The latest update on the country’s rollout comes after 18,000 people attended temporary walk-in centres over the weekend.
Twenty six of the centres remained open on bank holiday Monday with people able to turn up to get a vaccine without having booked an appointment.
An inspiring weekend for the vaccination programme. Over 18,000 people have availed of Walk In Centres so far. Continuing today in 26 locations. People of all ages attending, 50% aged 16-17 years old & 64% 19 or under. Approx. 2.1M vaccines administered in just 6 weeks. @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) August 2, 2021
The vast majority of those attending the centre have been young people.
Almost two thirds of the 18,000 were aged 19 and under and 50% were aged 16 or 17.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid hailed the response.
“An inspiring weekend for the vaccination programme,” he tweeted.
Ireland also reached a landmark in the vaccine rollout at the weekend when the country overtook the UK in terms of percentage of adults fully vaccinated.
It represented a significant turnaround after the early stages of the vaccine programme were hit by delays associated with EU supply issues.
People queue outside a walk-in vaccination centre at the National Show Centre in Swords, Dublin on Sunday (Damien Eagers/PA)
In the spring there was speculation the UK might even move to donate surplus vaccines to Ireland later in the year to help it address the shortfall in jabs.
Since then Ireland’s rollout has accelerated significantly.
Around 73% of adults in Ireland are now fully vaccinated while 87% have received a first dose.
Almost 5.9 million jabs have been administered in total.
There was also another Covid-19 milestone at the weekend as the number of cases reported in Ireland since the pandemic began passed 300,000.
A health worker gives a vaccine in a vaccination centre at the National Show Centre in Swords, Dublin (Damien Eagers/PA)
There were a further 1,098 new confirmed cases of coronavirus reported on Sunday.
There were 163 Covid-19 patients in hospital on Sunday morning, 26 of whom were in ICU.
The walk-in centres run by the HSE are open to anyone aged 16 and over who has yet to receive a first dose.
Those attending will receive a Pfizer jab of the vaccine.
No appointment is necessary but people wishing to get vaccinated will need to produce photo ID and their Personal Public Service (PPS) number.