Ireland's COVID-19 cases on Saturday set another daily high since the breakout of the current wave of infections in the country in July.
There were 1,828 new confirmed cases reported in Ireland in the day, according to the Irish Department of Health.
This is the second day in a row that Ireland had reported a record high of cases in the current wave, according to the statistics from the department.
"The 14-day incidence rate in Ireland has increased to 386 per 100,000 population, that's the highest it's been since early February," said Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer with the Department of Health, in a tweet Friday night.
After the daily number of COVID-19 cases in Ireland surpassed the 1,000-level in mid-July for the first time in more than five months, it has remained above that level for 22 days in a row.
In the week ending on July 26, Ireland reported over 9,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, far more than the highest weekly numbers recorded in the first and second wave of infections in the country, which fell in April and October of last year.
The resurgence of the COVID-19 cases in Ireland came at a time when the country has made notable progress in vaccinating its people against COVID-19.
Paul Reid, head of the Health Service Executive, a state agency in charge of Ireland's vaccination program, tweeted on Saturday that 77 percent of adults in Ireland have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, an increase of almost five percentage points from the end of last month when Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced that 72.4 percent of adults in his country had been fully vaccinated.
"The level of uptake (of COVID-19 vaccine) across all age groups in Ireland is high by international comparisons," said the Cabinet Committee on COVID-19 in a Friday statement, adding that nearly 85 percent of people aged 16 and over in the country have either registered or received at least one dose of vaccine.
According to the statement, over six million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland and 3.2 million people out of the country's total population, estimated at five million, have received the first doses while 2.85 million people have been fully vaccinated.
The statement said that the incidence of serious illness, hospitalisations, intensive care unit admissions and mortality in the current wave are lower than the previous waves, and vaccination has played an effective role in lowering these figures.
Source: Xinhua
