50,000 people aged 12 to 15 registered to receive the covid-19 vaccine, with 90% of adults partially vaccinated and 80% fully vaccinated. august 2021 on 3 august, taoiseach micheál martin announced that a deal had been completed to secure 700,000 pfizer covid-19 vaccines from romania. on 18 august, ireland received its largest ever weekly shipment of covid-19 vaccines, with over 540,000 doses delivered to the hse, including the first batch of unwanted vaccines from the romanian government. september 2021 on 1 september, under changes to the covid-19 vaccination programme, the national immunisation advisory committee recommended that pregnant women could be offered an mrna covid-19 vaccine at any stage of pregnancy and that immunocompromised individuals aged 12 and older could receive a third additional vaccine dose. on 8 september, minister for health stephen donnelly announced an update to ireland's covid-19 vaccination programme, with residents aged 65 years and older living in long term residential care facilities and people aged 80 years and older living in the community to receive a booster dose of an mrna covid-19 vaccine. two days later on 10 september, latest figures showed that 90% of adults in ireland were fully vaccinated against covid-19, while the seven-millionth dose was administered. this is one of the highest levels of vaccination in the european union. november 2021 on 25 november, the hse began preliminary planning for offering covid-19 vaccines to children aged 5 to 11. after the european medicines agency (ema) gave its approval. december 2021 on 8 december, the niac recommended that covid-19 vaccinations be offered to children aged five to 11 years. january 2022 on 3 january 2022, vaccine registration began for all children aged 5 to 11, and vaccinations for this age group began on 8 january. vaccination certificates a covid-19 vaccination record card issued by the hse in august 2021.a covid-19 vaccine booster record card issued by the hse in january 2022. the health service executive (hse) issues a vaccine record card to those receiving a covid-19 vaccine in ireland that provides reminders for a follow-up appointment. the card contains the recipient's name, the dates on which the two doses were administered, the name of the vaccine, and its batch number. the vaccine record card, along with the eu digital covid certificate, were used as proofs of vaccination in restaurants, hotels and bars to gain access to indoor hospitality, as well as in nightclubs, indoor live entertainment, cinemas, theatres and gyms. requirements on the use of vaccine certificates were scrapped in january 2022. vaccine rollout and distribution vaccine priority groups the covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy currently includes 9 priority groups for the vaccine rollout in ireland. on 23 february, following the publication of the government's new revised living with covid-19 plan called "the path ahead", minister for health stephen donnelly announced an update to the covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy with people aged between 16 and 69 who are at very high risk of developing severe covid-19 moved up the priority list, after the national public health emergency team endorsed recommendations by the national immunisation advisory committee. on 30 march, minister for health stephen donnelly announced an update to the covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy with priority groups being changed to an age-based system after vulnerable people with underlying conditions were vaccinated. ireland's covid-19 vaccination programme (january–july 2021) january–march april–may may–july 1. 2. 3. people aged over 80 frontline healthcare workers people aged over 65 in long-term care facilities people aged 65–79 people at high or very high risk key vaccination workers other vulnerable groups everyone aged 18–64 order priority group 1 people aged 65 years and older who are residents of long-term care facilities 2 frontline healthcare workers 3 people aged 70 and older 4 people aged 16–69 whose medical condition puts them at very high risk of severe disease and death 5 people aged 65–69 whose underlying condition puts them at a high risk of severe disease and death 6 other people aged 65–69, other healthcare workers not in direct patient contact, and key workers 7 people aged 16–64 whose underlying condition puts them at high risk of severe disease and death 8 residents of long-term care facilities aged 18–64 9 people aged 64 years and younger, and people aged 16–64 living or working in crowded settings 55–64 years 45–54 years 35–44 years 25–34 years 16–24 years 10 12–15 years 5–11 years "people who have an underlying condition that puts them at high risk of severe disease and death" is defined as: people with cancer haematological – within 1 year haematological – within 1–5 years non-haematological – within 1 year all other cancers on non-hormonal treatment people with chronic heart (and vascular) disease (e.g. heart failure, hypertensive cardiac disease) people with chronic kidney disease with egfr <30ml/min people with chronic liver disease (e.g. cirrhosis or fibrosis) people with chronic neurological disease or condition (e.g. parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy. people with chronic respiratory disease (e.g. stable cystic fibrosis, severe asthma (continuous or repeated use of systemic corticosteroids), moderate copd) people with diabetes (type 1 and 2) people who are immunocompromised due to disease or treatment (e.g. high dose systemic steroids, persons living with hiv) people with inherited metabolic diseases people with intellectual disabilities (excluding down syndrome) people who are obese (bmi >35 kg/m2) people with severe mental illness (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression) organisations involved a high-level task force on covid-19 vaccination was established on 11 november 2020 to oversee the roll-out of covid-19 vaccines in the country once they were approved by the statutory authorities, and to support the department of health and health service executive (hse) to deliver a covid-19 immunisation programme that meets best practice and provides good governance. the first full meeting of the task force took place on 23 november 2020 and was chaired by professor brian maccraith. members of the high-level task force on covid-19 vaccination are made up of senior representatives from the department of health, the health service executive, the health products regulatory authority, the office of the government chief information officer, the office of government procurement, ida ireland, the dublin airport authority, the department of enterprise, trade and employment and the department of the taoiseach. the national immunisation advisory committee (an independent body outside of the hse) provides expert, evidence-based and impartial guidance about the covid-19 vaccines to the chief medical officer in the department of health. progress to date total doses administered by vaccine type as of 21 february 2023 pfizer–biontech (6,013,524) (74.63%) oxford–astrazeneca (1,217,512) (15.1%) moderna (585,177) (7.26%) janssen j&j (241,233) (2.99%) novavax (450) (0.00%) total eligible population vaccinated at least one dose second dose booster dose uptake by age group age group third booster second booster first booster primary course at least one dose not vaccinated 80+ years 49.1% 90.1% 100% 100% 100% 0% 60+ years 31.6% 74.2% 100% 100% 100% 0% 50–59 years 0.5% 34.4% 87.9% 99% 100% 0% 25–49 years 0.1% 5.1% 65.1% 90% 91% 9% 18–24 years 0% 1.6% 53.7% 88.8% 90.1% 9.9% <18 years 0% 0.1% 8% 32.9% 34.1% 65.9% vaccination centres up to 40 large vaccination centres were put in place across the country to administer covid-19 vaccines. major facilities were put in place in cork, dublin, waterford, sligo, galway, limerick and athlone, with smaller centres in mullingar, longford, ennis, nenagh, bantry and tralee. three gp-run vaccination centres were also put in place across the country, with the helix at dublin city university the first to be established, vaccinating 5,000 people a day. cork city hall, páirc uí chaoimh gaa grounds and munster technological university's bishopstown campus were transformed into mass vaccination centres, administering 10,000 shots a day. large venues such as sports stadia, gaa clubs, hotels, conference centres and arenas were used as mass vaccination centres across all counties in ireland. aviva stadium vaccination centre.waterford it arena vaccination centre.cork city hall vaccination centre. locations on 15 february, minister for health stephen donnelly confirmed locations for 37 vaccination centres across all counties as part of the country's covid-19 vaccination programme. on 20 february, nearly 1,000 patients over the age of 85 received their first dose of a covid-19 vaccine at the country's first mass vaccination centre at the helix in dublin city university. on 28 july, it was announced that some of the vaccination centres would allow walk-in vaccinations on certain days and times without an appointment. carlowcavanclarecorkdonegaldublingalwaykerrykildarekilkennylaoisleitrimlimericklongfordlouthmeathmayomonaghanoffalyroscommonsligotipperarywaterfordwestmeathwexfordwicklowvaccination centre locations in the republic of ireland location of vaccination centres in the republic of ireland centre county carlow it carlow kilmore hotel cavan west county hotel, ennis clare bantry primary care centre cork city hall, cork cork páirc uí chaoimh cork clonakilty gaa club cork mtu cork, bishopstown cork mallow gaa club cork letterkenny it donegal aviva stadium dublin citywest convention centre dublin croke park dublin the helix, dcu (until july 2021) dublin national show centre, swords (from july 2021) ballybrit racecourse galway mtu kerry, tralee kerry killarney sports & leisure centre kerry punchestown racecourse kildare cillin hill conference centre kilkenny midlands park hotel, portlaoise laois primary care unit, carrick-on-shannon leitrim radisson hotel (until july 2021) limerick limerick racecourse (from july 2021) clonguish gaa club, newtownforbes longford fairways hotel, dundalk louth simonstown gaels gaa club, navan meath breaffy house resort, castlebar mayo hillgrove hotel monaghan tullamore court hotel offaly abbey hotel roscommon sligo it sligo abbeycourt hotel, nenagh tipperary clonmel park hotel tipperary waterford it arena waterford athlone it arena (until september 2021) westmeath moate community centre (from september 2021) bloomfield house hotel, mullingar (until september 2021) westmeath riverside hotel, enniscorthy (until july 2021) wexford astro active centre, enniscorthy (from july 2021) kilanerin community centre, gorey (from june 2021) wexford arklow bay hotel (until june 2021) wicklow shoreline leisure centre, greystones wicklow issues and controversies adverse events further information: vaccine adverse event on 14 march 2021, the administration of the astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine was suspended in ireland by the national immunisation advisory committee (niac) as a precautionary measure following concerns over serious blood clots in norway. on 19 march, the niac recommended that the astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine could continue to be used in ireland following approval from the european medicines agency (ema) on 18 march. on 8 april, the health products regulatory authority (hpra) began an investigation after the first case of a very rare blood clot in the brain of a person after vaccination with the astrazeneca vaccine was confirmed in a 40-year-old dublin woman. on 12 april, following a lengthy meeting, the national immunisation advisory committee (niac) recommend that only people over 60 years of age should get the astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine and that a second dose of the vaccine should not be given to anyone who developed unusual blood clots with low platelets after the first dose. hospitals on 26 march 2021, the labour party leader alan kelly called for the chief executive of the beacon hospital to resign after it gave 20 leftover covid-19 vaccines to a number of teachers and staff at a private secondary school in bray, county wicklow on 23 march. one day later on 27 march, minister for health stephen donnelly requested the health service executive (hse) to suspend vaccine operations at the beacon hospital following the controversy. on 19 july, four months after the controversy, an independent report found that the decision by the hospital to provide vaccines to 20 teachers at the bray school was incorrect, but was made in good faith. on 1 april, an independent review of the covid-19 vaccination programme at the coombe hospital found that a consultant brought two leftover vaccine doses home to administer them to two family members. opposition to age-based overhaul of vaccines on 30 march 2021, a decision by the government to overhaul the allocation of covid-19 vaccines to an age-based system sparked anger and concern among teachers' unions and key workers. the new change meant that key workers in essential jobs and the education sector who couldn't avoid a high risk of exposure to the virus would lose vaccine prioritisation. ireland's largest teaching union, the irish national teachers' organisation (into), strongly criticised moves to change the vaccination rollout plan stating it was "extremely concerned" by the news, while the teachers' union of ireland (tui) echoed concerns and called for urgent engagement with the department of education. the association of secondary teachers, ireland (asti) stated it was "shocked and dismayed"