398 new Covid cases confirmed; Taoiseach says 1m will be fully vaccinated by the end of the day
Signs for the Covid-19 vaccination centre at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. File Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
A further 398 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed by officials at the Department of Health this evening.
At present, there are 70 people hospitalised with the virus, 23 of whom are being treated in intensive care.
As with previous updates, the Department of Health said the case numbers announced today may change due to future data review and validation.
As of midnight, Wednesday 9 June, we are reporting 398* confirmed cases of #COVID19.
— Department of Health (@roinnslainte) June 10, 2021
23 in ICU. 70 in hospital.
*Daily case numbers may change due to future data review, validation and update.
One million people will be fully vaccinated by the end of the day, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
Speaking in Dublin earlier this afternoon, the Taoiseach said that the Government’s earlier target of vaccinating 82 percent of the population by the end of July would likely not be met.
However, he said it was his expectation that around 70 percent of adults would be fully vaccinated by that point.
Mr Martin said reaching this "significant milestone" would be challenging, but that the recent National Immunisation Advisory Committee's decision to shorten the interval between doses would help.
"It’s very, very important that people take up the vaccine offer when they get an offer because if we all get vaccinated we protect each other,” he said.
The Taoiseach said that the HSE were continuing to administer vaccines as quickly as they were available, and that future vaccine targets would always be subject to adequate supply.
But he said next month was looking good in terms of targets.
"June is going to be a very good month, the last two weeks of June are looking good in terms of security of supply from Pfizer/BioNTech," he said.
He said the situation around the AstraZeneca vaccine was also improving.
"They [AstraZeneca] have developed new capacities in Spain and Germany in terms of fill and finish so therefore they are looking better than perhaps they did earlier in the pandemic in terms of the supplying and giving us visibility of that supply over the next couple of weeks."
Echoing the Taoiseach’s remarks, HSE Chief Paul Reid said the health service was aiming to administer somewhere between 270,000 and 290,000 vaccines next week.
Mr Reid said the benefits of the expanding vaccination rollout were now being seen in daily case figures, mortality rates, hospital and ICU admissions, and increasing herd immunity.
Meanwhile, one of the busiest hospitals in the country has said it isn’t treating any inpatients with Covid-19 for the first time since March 2020.
St James's Hospital in Dublin 8 was regularly treating upwards of 100 patients with the disease each day during the third wave of the virus earlier this year.
I think we’ve all worked so hard to get to this point,” said Infectious Disease Control Consultant, Dr Clíona Ní Cheallaigh.
Dr Ní Cheallaigh told this afternoon that everyone at the hospital was hoping that things would keep improving.
"There still is a lot of Covid circulating in the community and that people need to not let down their guard," she said.
"But for the moment, things are looking really hopeful, and we're delighted to get back to all the other work that we need to get done.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly described St James’ Hospital’s announcement as "really great news."
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