17,065 new cases of Covid 19 have been reported in the Republic this evening .
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said this evening that vaccine uptake has been exceptional.
59% of the adult population here have availed of a booster dose, compared with just 32% across Europe.
He said the primary purpose of vaccination has always been to prevent serious illness and death, and the vaccines continue to prove remarkably effective in this regard and have provided significant protection to the most vulnerable and to our health system in recent weeks, with the booster dose restoring protection against severe disease to 90%. At present, just 20% of people in intensive care have been boosted.
He said it’s also clear that those who have been boosted are less susceptible to infection and, if infected, are less infectious to others, compared with those who have not been boosted.
