More than 260,000 people on the island of Ireland have received their first Covid vaccine.
The Republic has administered 121,900 jabs so far, equating to 2.5 per cent of the population.
In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that 73,100 of the doses were given to frontline healthcare workers and 48,800 were received by people in long-term care facilities.
Northern Ireland is the part of the UK with the most effective vaccine rollout currently, with 138,436 first doses administered, equivalent to 7.3 per cent of the population inoculated.
When comparing the rollout to the rest of world, Ireland is performing relatively well.
More than 50 nations administering vaccines have published data.
The table below, using official statistics collated by Our World in Data – an online scientific publication linked to Oxford University – shows the percentage of each country's population vaccinated with at least a first dose.
Ireland has the third highest vaccination rate in the European Union, behind Malta and Denmark.
In absolute numbers, Germany is the EU country that has administered the most doses, with 1.3 million given out.
China has given the most doses overall, with more than 15 million, while the United States has administered 14.3 million.
Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain top the global list when the figures are broken down by population. They have given Covid vaccines to 27 per cent, 19 per cent and 9 per cent of their populations respectively.
Most countries are prioritising the over-60s, health workers and people who are clinically vulnerable.
September deadline
The Government here intends to ensure every resident in Ireland will be offered the vaccine by September.
Mr Donnelly told the Dáil on Thursday that Ireland will receive 3.3 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab after approval, which is expected at the end of January.
The State will get its delivery from AstraZeneca on a monthly basis, with 40,000 doses a week from Pfizer. An initial shipment from Moderna of 4,000 to 6,000 doses has already been received.
But he said Ireland would go “into the buffers” this week on vaccine supply because of the announcement of a cut of 50 per cent in the Pfizer vaccine production while manufacturing facilities are upgraded.
