People aged 40-50 can register for the Covid vaccine next week.

The timeline was confirmed by the chief executive of the HSE, Paul Reid, who said that, while health chiefs are still waiting on advice regarding the use of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines in people aged between 45 and 50, people in that age group can expect to be invited to register via the online portal soon.

“The 40s to 50s will be next, we will be communicating out on that later next week for people to start registering on that portal,” Mr Reid told RTÉ Radio’s Saturday with Katie Hannon show.

“Everybody who’s over the age of 50 to 69 can still go on now and register.”

People aged between 35 and 40 are likely to be invited for their first dose of the vaccine next month, as part of plans to ensure 82% of the adult population receives at least one dose of the vaccine by June.

While no date has been confirmed just yet, the Department of Health hopes to vaccinate people in their late 20s and early thirties at some point in July.

Hospital admissions decreasing

According to Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, the profile of Covid-19 in Ireland is “generally stable with grounds for optimism”.

More than 514,808 people are now fully vaccinated and 40% of Ireland’s adult population has received their first dose of the vaccine.

“Hospital and ICU admissions are decreasing slowly, the 7-day moving average is reduced, the 5-day moving average is stable, the national positivity rate has reduced to 2.4% and incidence among all age groups is reducing.” Professor Nolan said.

“The data also reveals the positive effects of vaccination, not only incidence in the over 65 age groups below the national average and rapidly declining, but we are seeing a very large discrepancy in the probability of being hospitalised or dying.

“It is clear that vaccination not only decreases infection but also decreases the severity of any disease that breaks through.”