IRELAND currently has one of the very lowest Covid-19 hospitalisations rates in Europe, according to figures.
Only four countries have fewer patients in hospital being treated for coronavirus per million population - Czech Republic, Norway, Israel and Denmark.
There are just 73 patients with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, 20 of which are in intensive care.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) recently published an international review on public health measures and strategies to limit the spread of Covid-19.
The report, which was submitted to NPHET, found that restrictions continue to be eased across 18 of the 19 countries examined. Portugal was the exception, where regional Covid-19 restrictions have been reintroduced.
HIQA said that the latest data shows increasing Covid-19 incidence rates in over half of the countries included in the review, likely due to the Delta variant.
Their report also found that within the EU, Spain had the highest proportion of its population vaccinated against the virus, with 39.5% of all citizens now fully vaccinated, followed closely by Germany at 37.6%.
Ireland has fully vaccinated 36.2% of its total population, and 58% of its adult population.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said that Ireland's vaccination programme would "ultimately out manoeuvre the virus and Delta".
Our vaccine programme will ultimately out manoeuvre the virus & Delta. Later this week 5M vaccines will have been administered. Today over 58% of adults are fully vaccinated. So let's protect all of this, by being cautious, as Delta will have an impact for a few weeks. @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) July 14, 2021
HIQA's Director of HTA, Dr Mairin Ryan, said: "We need to remain cautious. While our rate of hospitalisations and ICU admissions is low, incidence rates are rising, which suggests an increase in hospitalisations may be ahead of us.
"The Covid-19 vaccine remains the best method to limit the spread of SARs-CoV-2 and safeguard against serious illness."
