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More than 10,000 people got vaccinated at temporary walk-in centers across the State on Saturday.<\/p>\nMore than 10,000 people got vaccinated at temporary walk-in centers across the State on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Dozens of centers have been operating across the country over the bank holiday weekend as the vaccination program continues at a significant pace.<\/p>\n
Long queues have been observed at many across the weekend, with many young people among those waiting in line for a first jab. Twenty of the centers will be open through Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon, the Department of Health confirmed that 1,098 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the State as of midnight on Saturday. There are now 163 people in hospital with the virus, 26 of whom are in ICU.<\/p>\n
Earlier, HSE chief executive Paul Reid, who visited a center in Athlone on Sunday, said the walk-in initiative would be used again, but not on such a widespread scale as the bank holiday weekend drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the success of it we are looking at how we will utilize it now going forward,\u201d he told RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we do expect to use it again in a very targeted and focused way not just generally walk-ins but very targeted, focused and promoted. So we do expect to use it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday also saw the Republic mark a landmark in the vaccine rollout when the country overtook the UK in terms of percentage of adults fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n
It represented a significant turnaround after the early stages of the vaccine program were hit by delays associated with EU supply issues.<\/p>\n
In the spring there was speculation the UK might even move to donate surplus vaccines to the State later in the year to help it address the shortfall in jabs.<\/p>\n
Since then, the Irish rollout has accelerated significantly.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said 72.4 per cent of adults were fully vaccinated in Ireland, compared to 72.1 per cent in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cA brilliant effort by everyone involved,\u201d Mr Martin tweeted.<\/p>\n
Responding to images of queues at the walk-in centers on social media, Minster for Health Stephen Donnelly tweeted: \u201cJust fantastic to see this! We should all be so proud of our collective enthusiasm and buy-in to our national vaccine program.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the State also passed the 300,000-mark for the number of Covid cases recorded since the beginning of the pandemic last year.<\/p>\n