Mr. Paul Reid:

At a broad level, the take-up of vaccination in Ireland is exemplary. It is leading by any European or world standards. The level of take-up in those over 80 is practically 100%. It is approximately 97% in the cohort aged 70 and older. As one walks down the age groups, including the cohort over 50, the take-up level is higher than 87%. The take-up has been really strong. Our campaign continues. Those in the cohorts to which we have administered vaccines can still register on the portal and people from those age groups are still doing so. As of today, the portal is open to those aged 36. We still see people in the over-50 group and other age groups registering on the portal. We encourage people to do that. As my colleague, Mr. McCallion, said earlier, vaccination for those aged over 50 who have not had a vaccine administered is now available through the pharmacies. Overall, the uptake to date has been extremely strong across all age cohorts. We are also seeing strong numbers of registrations among the cohort aged 35 and older every day.

Nobody will be left behind. We do not want anybody to be left behind and we will continue with our communications to encourage everybody to come through. With regard to the Delta variant, we will be calling people for their second vaccination and we really encourage everyone to ensure they come forward for it. The highest levels of protection against the Delta variant are reached after the second dose across all vaccine types.