Almost a third of all adults in the State have received a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest HSE figures.
As of Wednesday evening, 1.7 million vaccine doses had been administered. Of these 1.23 million people received a first jab (32.56 per cent of the population over the age of 16), according to the HSE.
Of those 466,000 (12.3 per cent) or one-in-eight of the adult population have been fully vaccinated with 42,000 vaccines administered on Wednesday.
Speaking at the weekly HSE briefing, chief executive Paul Reid said the country had "not been at such a hopeful moment since January 2020" and the vaccination programme has "brought us to a very good place".
All the indicators of sickness and death related to Covid-19 are down, he said. Hospital admissions with Covid-19 on Thursday morning were at 131, down 19 per cent on last week.
There were 19 deaths from Covid-19 in April in over-65s in comparison with 1,677 in the first four weeks of 2021.
There were no Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes last week. Among healthcare staff there have been fewer than 40 cases a week on average over the last month. At the height of the pandemic there were more than 1,200 cases a week recorded in healthcare staff.
Currently 97 per cent of people over the age of 85 have received a vaccine and 90 per cent have been fully vaccinated.
Almost everybody in the 75-84 age cohort have receive a vaccine and 85 per cent have received a second dose. In those between 65 and 74, 84 per cent have received one dose and 9 per cent have received a second.
Mr Reid said he anticipated that the HSE would carry out between 220,000 and 240,000 vaccines this week.
Next week, the HSE hopes to carry out between 250,000 and 270,000 vaccines. This will be mostly made up of second doses for the over-70s while commencing vaccinating the 50 -59 age group.
To date 104,000 people in that age cohort have registered for their vaccination through the online HSE portal which opened on Tuesday.
The 14-day incidence rate for Covid-19 in Ireland of 115 per 100,000 is now the fourth lowest in the EU.
HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said there was "huge enthusiasm" in the population for the Covid-19 vaccines.
Dr Henry said it was becoming "clearer and clearer" that not only do vaccines prevent people getting sick but they also help prevent transmission. To date in Israel the vaccination programme has reduced the number of cases by 90 per cent and by 86 per cent in the vaccinated population among NHS staff in the UK.
