The HSE Health Service Executive has opened registration for vaccination for children aged 12 to 15 years.
Latest figures this afternoon show over 50,000 people in that cohort have been registered.
HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid has said many will have already received appointments for this weekend.
Parents and guardians can now register for a Covid-19 vaccination for their children with vaccination provided at a HSE vaccination centre, or through participating pharmacies or GPs.
The consent of parents or guardians will be needed either when registering online, or at the vaccination centre.
The HSE said that it will try to facilitate parents who are working with later appointment times.
It asked parents to look at all the advice on vaccination for this group, to decide what is best for the children and to discuss the vaccination process with them.
Around 280,000 children will be eligible for immunisation with a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Speaking at today's HSE Covid-19 briefing, Mr Reid said: "Very encouragingly, by mid-morning this morning, over 42,000 children aged 12-15 have been registered on the online system."
He said this is likely to be the last age group of the vaccination campaign.
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In a post on Twitter, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said: "The first vaccinations for this age group will take place in the coming days."
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer said that children aged 12 to 15 with underlying medical conditions or who live with vulnerable people should be vaccinated.
He said that the vast majority of children who get the disease will have mild symptoms and the vast majority will recover, but a small minority will have serious complications.
He said parents would weight up the pros and cons of vaccination in discussion with GPs or pharmacists.
Dr Glynn said "Covid remains a risk to anyone who has not had it or remains unvaccinated".
Professor of Comparative Immunology at Trinity College in Dublin Cliona O'Farrelly said parents should not be concerned about getting their children the Covid vaccine, even if they have received other vaccinations recently.
Professor O'Farrelly said our immune systems are incredibly complex and diverse and can deal with a number of responses at the same time.
She told RTÉ's Today with Philip Boucher Hayes that over 4 million children under the age of 17 have received the Pfizer jab without any severe reactions although some mild reactions have been recorded.
Professor O'Farrelly said the vast number of cases of Covid-19 being recorded globally are among the young and unvaccinated people.
She said Covid-19 causes huge disruption, even if the person affected doesn't become very ill, and there is always the risk of passing on the virus.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, the recommendation is for this cohort to be vaccinated."
Professor O'Farrelly said young people will be getting the same dosage as adults but that there is evidence that young people have a better immune response so some may experience strong side effects.
A professor of immunology at Dublin City University said that real-world evidence on Covid-19 vaccines should provide the parents of 12- to 15-year-olds with a huge amount of confidence about safety and side effects.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Prof Christine Loscher said that the vaccines have an excellent safety profile in clinical trials among those aged 12 to 15.
She said real-world data from wide-scale vaccination in the United States uncovered a rare side effect of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, in this age cohort that was not seen in the clinical trials.
The incidence of myocarditis is higher in this age group and while the reason for this is not understood, heart inflammation is a side effect of Covid-19 infection in some cases.
In the US, a total of 4.4 million children in this age group are now fully vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer vaccine.
She said: "The most important thing is that the real-world data tells us it is a possibility and tells us how to manage it and spot the signs."
She said it is considered a very rare side effect and a manageable one and that parents will be informed about what symptoms to look out for and when medical assistance is needed.
Dr Loscher said that concerns about 'long Covid' in children remain and that in the UK, data shows that up to 10% of children present with symptoms after six weeks and some up to eight months after infection.
Dr Loscher said that the consent of children is an important part of the discussion and parents of this age group will have experience in this area after the HPV vaccine rollout.
She said that the focus of conversations needs to be about the protection for the child in terms of getting infected and recovering from infection and the impact on others, as well as the impact of Covid infection on their wider education and social interactions.
Minister defends Digital Covid Cert issuing process
Minister of State for Public Procurement and eGovernment Ossian Smyth has said there is a very small proportion of people who are entitled to the Digital Covid Certs who have not yet received them.
"I have issued three million (Certs) and I know just about three million have been vaccinated at this stage."
He defended the success of the Digital Covid Cert to date and said Irish passport holders in Northern Ireland and the UK will also be able to receive them soon.
"We have been working on it for a number of months and we have issued three million certificates in a joint programme and it has been massively successful at allowing people to travel internationally. Many have been able to reunite with loved ones abroad. 20,000 were able to return to work in indoor hospitality as a result . It has been an incredibly successful situation. But we will extend it to Irish passport holders in the UK."
Addressing the issue that some people have not received their certs, he said he receives the medical records from the HSE regarding those who have been vaccinated and issues the certs accordingly, but if data is missing that is where a situation can arise.
"If your data was never typed into the system or if an address has changed it is possible your DCC has gone astray."
He said the Department of Health set up a helpline and online portal so people could go online and request a cert to be issued again or changed if something was wrong with it.
He also said the HSE has set up a specific "resolver group" to address the issue of missing medical records.
"If your record is missing it is being repaired and you will be included."
He said they are working to issue Irish passport holders in Northern Ireland who were vaccinated there with the EU digital Covid Certs shortly.
"They will be able to avail of it."
He explained that for those who got their first vaccine abroad but the second dose in Ireland that they will be issued with a Covid cert.
However for people who were vaccinated abroad such as the States he said they are not issuing digital certs for this cohort of people.
Minister Smyth said the Digital Covid Cert scheme is due to expire on 30 June 2022 but anticipates it will be required beyond that.
"I think that there will be a continuing requirement for vaccination status, if not in Ireland certainly to travel. And what we have seen with the Delta threat is that a new variant can emerge without warning which is stronger or more contagious and requires new vaccinations to deal with it. So with that in mind, I would expect the Covid certification is going to continue."
Evening walk-in clinic at vaccination centre in Citywest
Separately, the vaccination centre at Citywest will run an evening walk-in clinic today.
The clinic will be open from 6pm to 10am and anyone over 16 who is not yet vaccinated can attend for a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
People who have registered in advance should bring photo ID (including proof of date of birth). For anyone who has not pre-registered, they should also bring their PPS number and eircode, and will be asked for a mobile phone number and email address.
Meanwhile, new figures show that over 78% of adults are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19. It represents almost 60% of the population.
In a posting on social media, Professor Brian MacCraith, chairperson of the High Level Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccination, said that over 89% of adults have now received at least one dose.
Almost 6.2 million vaccines have been administered.
There are 219 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals today, according to the latest figures, an increase of 13 on yesterday.
Of these, 36 are in intensive care units.
The hospitals with the largest number of coronavirus patients are: Sligo University with 21 and Beaumont in Dublin and University Hospital Limerick, each with 17 patients, according to the HSE's latest operations report.
Yesterday, the Department of Health reported 1,819 new cases of Covid-19.
The Government's Covid Data Hub has updated its total deaths figure to 5,059. This is an increase of 15 since Wednesday 4 August. It is not known when the deaths took place.
