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vaccination drive
Over 200,000 first doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered
A majority of people have received the Pfizer jab, with over 290,000 people getting it so far.
THE LATEST VACCINATION figures show that over 200,000 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with over 320,000 vaccines administered overall.
The figures come as the government looks at a plan to change the vaccination priority list, to allow those who have underlying conditions to move up the queue.
In total, 205,955 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 120,520 receiving a second dose. These most recent figures are from Thursday 18 February.
A significant majority of those receiving jabs have gotten the Pfizer vaccine, with approximately 294,400 people getting that particular dose.
This is compared to 28,119 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and lower still, the Moderna vaccine, with just 3,963 doses administered.
Speaking to Newstalk’s On The Record this morning, the Director of the National Immunisation Office Dr Lucy Jessop said that people shouldn’t be concerned about the efficacy of the vaccines for the UK B117 variant that is currently dominant in Ireland.
“We know that the vaccines we have here are safe and effective against that [B117] variant,” said Dr Jessop.
“The most important thing, I think, is to be confident that the vaccines we have are effective against the variants we have mainly circulating in Ireland at the moment.”
She also clarified that the National Virus Reference Laboratory and other authorities are keeping a “close eye” on any new variants so that public health can respond as best they can.
Hospitalisations
There are now a total of 744 people in hospital with a confirmed case of Covid-19 as of 8am this morning.
There have been 35 admissions in the last 24 hours, with 21 discharges.
In Intensive Care Units, there were 148 cases as of 11am this morning.
There were four admissions to ICU in the last 24 hours, with three discharges within the same period.
Last night, a further 988 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland according to the National Public Health Emergency Team
26 deaths of people confirmed to have been diagnosed with Covid-19 were also reported.
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