Ireland now has one of the fastest vaccination rates in the world, according to the latest data.
London-based not-for-profit organisation Our World in Data states that Ireland's seven-day rate of vaccination has only been surpassed by Canada, Portugal and Sweden to Saturday.
The seven-day average in Ireland is the equivalent of 1.19 per cent of the population receiving a dose on a daily basis. This is an average of 60,000 vaccinations being administered daily to a population of five million in the past week.
The vaccine rollout in the State has been accelerating since July 1st when the equivalent of 1 per cent of the population was vaccinated for the first time. It reached a peak of 1.38 per cent on July 7th.
These are total doses. According to figures produced by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, 4,707,181 vaccinations have been administrated to date with 2,673,840 having received a first dose as of Saturday and 2,033, 341 are fully vaccinated.
Close on three-quarters of the adult population have had at least one dose and 55 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Speaking on Newstalk, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said just one person who has been fully vaccinated has ended up in an ICU since April.
Mr Donnelly explained: “We’ve looked at the number of people going into intensive care in April, May and June.
“The vast majority of those didn’t have any vaccine protection. But most encouragingly, only one of the cases was a so-called breakthrough infection – somebody who was fully vaccinated, 14 days after their second dose."
