Ireland hits the 500,000 vaccine milestone

Taoiseach Micheál Martin welcomed news from the hse yesterday that over half-a-million vaccines have been administered since the beginning of the rollout.

The Taoiseach wrote on Twitter yesterday: ‘Just been informed by the hse that we have passed the half a million mark of covid Vaccine doses administered.

Good news.

‘The vaccines are having a significant impact on mortality or serious illness.

‘The number of covid patients in hospitals and icU is reducing all the time.’

on Thursday, the team at the Mater hospital in Dublin celebrated their own milestone when the hospital administered its 10,000th vaccination.

Meanwhile, the Department of health yesterday confirmed 14 further deaths of people with covid-19 and 539 new cases.

Nine of the deaths occurred in March, one in February and four in January or earlier, the department explained. The median age of those who died was 80 years and the age range was 59-94 years.

it brings the official covid-19 death toll in ireland to 4,419.

of the cases, 295 are men and 240 are women, with 69% under 45 years of age. The median age is 33. as of 8am today, 414 coronavirus patients are in hospital, of which 101 are in icU.