Queues are forming at Ireland's walk-in vaccination centres as thousands of people look to get their Covid-19 jab.
Dozens of centres opened today with anyone aged 16 or over who is yet to receive a first dose invited to attend.
Those attending the centres will receive a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
HSE Chief Paul Reid tweeted this morning: "Walk in Vaccination Centres all across the country are off to a great start this weekend. City West is flying it, with over 800 people vaccinated in the first 1.5 hours. Smaller centres equally reporting a good turnout. A great response by the Irish people."
Speaking last night, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan praised the country for its "incredible" vaccine uptake.
The CMO said: "Vaccination and the incredible uptake across many age groups is leading us to a turning point in the pandemic. If we experience similar uptake in the younger cohorts as experienced in the over 60’s, Ireland will have a strong population-level defence against #COVID19 and its known variants."
Ireland's progress of having 72% of the population fully vaccinated now means that we are ahead of the UK by little over a percent.
Chairman of Ireland's vaccine taskforce Brian MacCraith also added this morning: "It’s ‘Walk-in Weekend’ !! Great to see the lines forming already outside walk-in vaccination clinics right across the country (at least one in every county)."
