The number of vaccinations against coronavirus is being ramped up, with over 80,000 people due to be inoculated this week.
Vaccine delivery at a community level is due to begin today - as GPs receive supplies of the shots.
From today, people aged over 85 will begin to be vaccinated in their local GP practice or in 40 vaccination centres around the country.
Those aged over 85 will receive their first dose over a three-week period.
Around 12,000 first doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine will be given out at 84 GP practices in 20 counties.
Around 3,000 GPs and practice nurses received their first Covid-19 vaccine yesterday.
The doctors and nurses were being administered the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab at vaccination centres around the country.
Meanwhile, all over-70s will be administered their first dose by mid-April and their second dose by mid-May.
Health Service Executive Chief Executive Paul Reid said: "We have a very key week ahead of us, where we will be completing over 80,000 vaccinations."
The figure is "almost double what we have been doing on a weekly basis," he added.
Mr Reid said it will include "13,500 people who are aged 85 plus, who will be vaccinated in their GP practice or in vaccination centres".
"We will also be doing over 40,000 staff and residents in long-term care facilities, who will be getting their second dose, and thirdly, 25,000 vaccinations of frontline healthcare workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine."
As of last Thursday, just over 261,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered in Ireland.
We're heading into a more positive phase in dealing with #COVID19. We all wish we had more supplies to vaccinate quicker. But soon we'll have our most vulnerable living in care homes and in the community protected. And supplies improve from this week too. #Hope @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) February 15, 2021
A Dublin-based GP has said the high levels of Covid-19 referrals seen over Christmas has reduced from eight to ten a day, to around one a day, according to GP Buddy, which tracks the number of cases that GPs refer for Covid tests.
Dr Shane McKeogh, of Solas Medical Centre in Rathfarnham, was one of the founders of the GP Buddy Covid Tracker.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said there has not been any particular change in any one area and cases have been coming down week on week.
The Chair of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP committee said today is a great day.
Dr Denis McCauley, a Donegal-based GP, said he estimated that around 2,700 vaccines will be administered tomorrow while around 16,000 vaccines in total should be delivered this week, including the weekend's vaccine figures administered to GPs and practice nurses.
Speaking on the same programme, he said this is the first time this vaccine has been administered outside a hospital or nursing home setting and that it is important to allow GPs to "get used to it".
Haste is good, he said, but organisation is better.
He said that "well over 70% of practices will be giving the vaccine in their own surgeries" and the majority of patients will receive it from their own GP.
However, a minority of patients will go to a hub style arrangement where it can be delivered.
Dr McCauley said that there are not many patients who will need to receive the vaccine in their home but arrangements have been made for those who do need this service.
He said that his surgery should vaccinate their patients aged over 85 within the space of a day but that cold chain delivery will be given every two weeks and he does not expect to receive more vaccines until the next grouping is ready to be vaccinated.
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Criticism over approach to pharma industry
Meanwhile, former Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton has called for a partnership approach between government institutions, health ministries and the pharmaceutical industry to ramp up the production and manufacturing of vaccines and "treat this like the war time crisis that it is".
Speaking on the same programme, she said the only question now for the EU institutions is how to increase vaccine roll-out, increase the production, manufacture and distribution of the vaccine.
She said the Government is "pumping billions at the moment into unemployment payments for people to sit at home, who can't go to work, who want to go to work", and she said she would rather see the Government prioritise productive investment in increasing the capacity of vaccine production.
She said there is a "huge lack of urgency both among the EU member state level and at European Commission level" on ramping up the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines.
She said people are constantly talking about the distribution of the vaccine, but there is not a sufficient amount of it.
Ms Creighton said "there's a real risk now that what we are proposing over the coming months, just won't even come close to what's required in terms of scale and volume of vaccines".
UK has large 'over-order' of vaccines
Public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally said there is going to be a need for vaccine capacity for "some considerable time" and uncertainty around vaccines distract from the key goal, which is getting the virus numbers down and keeping them down.
He said the UK has purchased more than enough doses to vaccinate their entire adult population "about four times, with two doses each time".
"So that's a lot of surplus vaccine", he said, adding that he would be putting in a phone call to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about that.
"It's absolutely in the UK's interest to help Ireland", Dr Scally said.
"So that would be my first call because they've got a massive over-order... I think it's mutually beneficial. The last thing the UK wants is to have Ireland lagging behind and having a lot more cases."
In relation to mandatory quarantine for incoming travellers, Dr Scally said Ireland "hasn't really moved on this" and it is important that the Government does.
"Variants (of the virus) are on their way", he said. "And let me tell you - variants move far faster than the Irish Government."
