The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine begins today at four hospitals around the country. 10,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived in Ireland on St Stephen's Day.
After three days in storage, the first of those vaccines will be administered in four acute hospitals; Beaumont and St James's hospitals in Dublin, Cork University Hospital, and Galway University Hospital.
Beamount Hospital has said that 500 doses of the vaccine will be given at the hospital over the coming days with similar numbers excepted to be administered at the other sites.
The Government and the HSE have said that the vaccination programme is starting in hospital settings to build confidence before the vaccine is rolled out to the country's more than 580 nursing