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shot in the arm
Vaccine target of over 85,000 reached last week despite only 301 jabs on Sunday
9.5% of the population have now received at least one dose.
A TOTAL OF 617,050 vaccine doses have been administered in the Republic of Ireland up to Sunday, with 9.5% of the population now having received at least one dose.
Latest figures from the HSE up until Sunday show that 452,554 people have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, with 164,496 people receiving a second dose.
It means that 3.45% of the population are considered fully vaccinated.
The figures also outlined the number of vaccines administered last week from Monday to Sunday.
In total, 85,869 doses were administered over the course of the week, exceeding the target of 84,166 the HSE had set out for the week.
The target was reached despite the HSE falling short in vaccinating the projected number of people in Cohort 4, who have an underlying health condition which puts them at very high risk.
It had been planned that 10,000 people in that group would receive a dose of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine during the week but just 4,157 vaccines were delivered to that group up to Saturday.
The plans were hit by the decision on Sunday to pause the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine subject to a review by the European Medicines Agency.
In total, only 301 vaccine doses were administered on Sunday. Sunday is the slowest day for vaccinations, with 1,375 doses administered on the Sunday previous and 2,462 the week before that.
The Department of Health has also provided an update this afternoon on the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines into this country, stating that 758,490 doses have been delivered up to the end of last week.
This means that approximately 81% of the doses delivered into this country have been administered. The department points out that vaccine manufacturer Moderna requests that 50% of its doses are held back for second doses.
“Similarly, an appropriate buffer amount is built up and held back for the other vaccines to ensure availability of second doses for the following week. Currently, about 95% of available vaccines are administered within seven days of arrival in Ireland,” the department said in a statement.
The department states that it remains the strategy to distribute all available vaccines as quickly as is operationally possible, prioritising those who are most vulnerable to Covid-19.
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