More than 89,000 children were registered when the portal opened.

Now the HSE has confirmed that in the past four days, almost 40,000 children aged between 12 and 15 have received the first dose of their Covid-19 vaccinations.

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, HSE Vaccination Programme lead Damien McCallion said the numbers over the weekend “have been really good,” and the majority of those registered will be fully vaccinated before school starts in September.

“We are getting to people very quickly as well because we are at a stage in the programme where we have ample supply and also, we have a lot of the other age groups done so, as people register, they are getting appointments pretty quickly.

“Many people will have got them in less than 24 hours for example so that is another advantage for people at this point in time,” McCallion added.

Mr McCallion advised parents and guardians who have concerns about giving the vaccine to young people in their care to visit HSE.ie or speak to a healthcare professional about their concerns.

Meanwhile, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that, with a further 1,758 new cases reported on Sunday, the rising number of Covid-19 patients requiring hospital care is a concern.

Today we’ve now 259 #COVID19 patients in hospital (up from just 40 over 6 weeks ago), 48 of those in ICU. Without vaccines in January we saw hospital cases of over 2,000. But it’s a strong reminder to us all to stick with what works, public health measures & vaccines. @HSELive

— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) August 16, 2021

“Today we’ve now 259 #COVID19 patients in hospital (up from just 40 over 6 weeks ago), 48 of those in ICU.” Mr Reid tweeted this morning.

“Without vaccines in January we saw hospital cases of over 2,000. But it’s a strong reminder to us all to stick with what works, public health measures & vaccines.”