Almost five thousand doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines for Covid-19 are to be administered to GPs and their practice nurses today and tomorrow.
It comes ahead of the start of the community vaccination programme for the over-70s on Monday. 
One hundred and eight large GP practices will then be given twelve thousand doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be administered during the coming week to people over the age of 85.
The Chief Executive of the HSE Paul Reid described it as a milestone in the vaccination roll-out programme.
Today, 1,800 second doses of the Moderna vaccine will be administered to GPs at four vaccination centres in Dublin, Portlaoise, Galway and Sligo. 
Tomorrow, 3,000 first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered at the same centres to GPs and practice nurses not vaccinated in the first round four weeks ago.
Starting on Monday, 12,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for the over-85s will be delivered to 108 large GP practices around the country to be administered as fast as possible.
Later in the week, 8,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be also delivered to GP practices, ahead of another 42,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during each of the following two weeks. 
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The aim is that all over-85s will receive their first vaccine dose within two to three weeks and that vaccination of 80 to 84-year-olds will already be under way.
Ireland is still on course to receive at least 1.1 million doses of the various Covid-19 vaccines by the end of March.
In all 79,500 doses of various vaccines are to be administered next week, substantially more than in any week in the roll-out campaign to date.
Apart from the 12,000 doses earmarked for the over-85s next week, 42,500 doses will go to residents and staff at nursing homes, and 25,000 doses to other healthcare workers.