The Chief Medical Officer has given an optimistic assessment of Ireland's coronavirus vaccination programme in an update issued this evening.
Dr Tony Holohan said the uptake of the jabs among the Irish public has been "fantastic" and shows the "commendable solidarity" of those who have availed of the vaccine.
It comes as a further 1,903 new cases of the virus were confirmed today, with 219 patients in hospital.
Dr Holohan echoed comments made by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn today that "vaccines work".
He said: "They are about 80% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 disease and they provide approximately 95% protection against hospitalisation. This protection against severe disease holds up even in the context of the Delta variant.
"Ireland’s vaccination programme is currently preventing at least 2,700 cases per week per million population.
"The Covid-19 vaccination programme has shown not only the best of scientific and medical endeavour, but also commendable solidarity by those who have come forward to receive a vaccine for the good of themselves and their wider community."
He added: "While uptake has been fantastic, there are some who have not yet taken the opportunity to get protected through vaccination.
"For those who remain unsure, have questions or concerns, please access trusted sources of information like your GP, pharmacist and HSE.ie."
It comes as Professor Philip Nolan released further analysis today on the protection offered by Covid-19 vaccines in Ireland so far.
The Chair of NPHET's Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group reiterated that "vaccines work" after data showed that since April, 95.5% of Covid-19 deaths in Irish adults were among unvaccinated people.
"The increasing proportion of cases and hospitalisations in fully vaccinated people is in line with expectations, and tells us vaccines are working, are highly effective, and are preventing a very large number of infections and hospitalisations," he said.
Alongside the above chart he posted on Twitter, professor Nolan wrote: "We have 70% of the adult population protected (two weeks after completing their regimen) and would expect about 30% of cases and 15% of hospitalisations to be fully vaccinated.
He continued: "What we don’t see is that for every fully vaccinated case, vaccines are preventing about 4 other cases. Vaccines are preventing at least 2,700 cases per week per million population, probably more.
"Similarly, for every vaccinated person who requires admission to hospital with a breakthrough infection, vaccines are averting 10-12 other severe infections and hospital admissions, at least 120 per week per million population.
"If vaccine coverage increases to 90%, the majority of cases, and close to half the hospital admissions will be in vaccinated people, but it is a smaller number of cases (two-thirds of that with 70% coverage) and hospitalisations (less than half that with 70% vaccination)."
Professor Nolan concluded that the key messages are that "vaccines are highly effective" and "the more of us that are vaccinated, the greater our protection".
"Vaccines are not perfectly effective: we will need to help them by taking simple hygiene measures to prevent infection," he added.
