IRELAND'S vaccination programme has officially overtaken the UK's in terms of progress.
The percentage of Ireland's total adult population who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is now higher than the UK figure, despite the fact that for a time, Britain had the fastest vaccine rollout in the world.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin hailed the success of Ireland's "brilliant" programme, as well as everyone involved following news that 74.2% of Irish adults have now received both their jabs, compared with just 72.1% in the UK.
"The vaccine rollout is continuing at great pace. Today we edged ahead of our nearest neighbours - a brilliant effort by everyone involved," Martin tweeted over the weekend.
The news marks a significant turnaround for the country given the severe delays it experienced in the early stages of the vaccine programme associated with EU supply issues.
Ireland's rollout has been going from strength to strength over the past few weeks, and now more than 5.8 million jabs have been administered across the country.
On Saturday, around 10,000 people turned up to get jabbed in new walk-in vaccine centres.
Weve been "blown away" by attendances at walk in clinics. Young people in Ireland have been to the fore of changing this country for the better. Now they've come out in numbers to protect themselves & us. And we're now ahead of the UK for % of adults fully vaccinated! @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) July 31, 2021
HSE chief Paul Reid said he was "blown away" by the attendance at walk-in clinics.
"Young people in Ireland have been to the fore of changing this country for the better. Now they've come out in numbers to protect themselves & us. And we're now ahead of the UK for % of adults fully vaccinated!" He tweeted.
Despite the positive news, over the weekend Ireland reached the unwanted milestone of 300,000 Covid-19 cases reported in the country since the pandemic began.
