75% reduction in COVID infections among Irish health care workers

Robert Besser
26 Feb 2021, 18:25 GMT+10

The number of healthcare workers contracting the COVID virus has dropped sharply in Ireland since the start of administering vaccines.
Fewer than 300 health care workers contracted the virus last week, compared to 1,400 in the final week of January.
There were fewer than 200 cases reported in care homes last week, compared to 1,250 three weeks ago.

The number of healthcare workers contracting the COVID virus has dropped sharply in Ireland since the start of administering vaccines.

Fewer than 300 health care workers contracted the virus last week, compared to 1,400 in the final week of January.

Additionally, there were fewer than 200 cases reported in care homes last week, compared to 1,250 three weeks ago.

"Very heartening, we think we are beginning to see strong early evidence of a protective impact of vaccinations on those cohorts that are in the course of being vaccinated at present," Ireland's COVID-19 modeling chief Philip Nolan told a news conference.

Some 360,000 vaccines have been administered to healthcare workers, care home residents and people over 85, with over 133,000 having received two doses.

Government plans call for 55% to 60% of the public being vaccinated by the end of June, if supplies arrive as scheduled.

Ireland is primarily using the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, though it has also administered small amounts of the Moderna and AstraZeneca shots.

Officials also report that the number of COVID cases per 100,000 people has fallen to 226 in the past 14 days, from a high of more than 1,500 only six weeks ago.

"Continue doing what you're doing. We've gone from a situation where six, seven weeks ago we were the worst in the world, and through the actions of people we are now in the top 10 in Europe," Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said, according to Reuters.

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