DUBLIN, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Over 180,000 people in Ireland have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, accounting for less than 4 percent of the country's around five million inhabitants, according to the official statistics released on Monday.
The Irish Department of Health said in a Monday night statement that as of Friday, a total of 668,529 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in Ireland.
Of all those who had been vaccinated in the country, 487,466 people had received their first dose and 181,063 had received both, said the department.
Currently, three COVID-19 vaccines are being used in Ireland, namely Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The use of AstraZeneca vaccine was resumed in Ireland on Saturday after the European Medicines Agency said that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed its risks.
The Irish government suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 14 due to blood clot concerns.
Paul Reid, CEO of the Health Service Executive, a state agency responsible for public health in Ireland, said earlier this month that the country's vaccination program had been repeatedly disrupted due to the untimely and insufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the Department of Health, 231,119 people in Ireland have been infected with COVID-19 and 4,588 of them have died from the disease.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 264 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 82 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to the latest information released by the World Health Organization. Enditem