More than 430,000 people across the island of Ireland are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But how does this compare with the rest of Europe and the world?
According to the latest available data, there are some 268,500 fully vaccinated people in the Republic, making up about 7 per cent of the adult population.
In Northern Ireland, more than 162,000 are fully immunised against Covid, about 11 per cent of adults.
Ireland lags behind the UK and some European nations when we look at the share of fully vaccinated people within the total population – about 5 per cent of the Republic's total population has received two Covid vaccine doses.
According to official statistics sourced by Our World in Data, as of April 5th almost 15 per cent of the population in Wales is fully vaccinated, alongside 8.3 per cent in Scotland and 7.7 per cent in England.
Serbia is the European country with the biggest share of its population fully immunised (16 per cent), followed by Malta (13 per cent) and Hungary (9.5 per cent).
In total numbers, 7.1 million people in Turkey are fully vaccinated (8.5 per cent of the population), and 4.3 million in Germany (5.2 per cent).
Outside of Europe, not every country administering Covid vaccines is providing data on the number of fully vaccinated people.
Of those that do share detailed information on their vaccine programme, Israel comes out on top – almost 56 per cent of Israelis are protected against Covid-19 after receiving two vaccine doses.
Following Israel are the United Arab Emirates (22.1 per cent), Chile (20.1 per cent) and the United States (18.4 per cent).
Some countries have different public health guidelines for fully vaccinated people.
For instance, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely travel at “low risk”.
In Israel, the fully vaccinated, and the around 8.7 per cent of people who have recovered from Covid-19 with presumed immunity, are handed “Green Pass” certificates from the government that give access to various leisure venues.
The Irish Government has issued guidance that fully vaccinated people can meet indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks and physical distancing. – Additional reporting: Reuters
