"We have a very key week ahead of us, where we will be completing over 80,000 vaccinations."
Across the country, people over the age of 85 will start receiving vaccinations this week, with a total of 80,000 vaccinations expected to be given out over the next seven days.
Local GP practices will now be administering Covid-19 vaccines, as will 40 vaccination centres around Ireland.
Approximately 12,000 first doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine will be administered at 84 GP practices across 20 counties.
Meanwhile, around 3,000 GPs and practice nurses received their first Covid-19 vaccine on Sunday.
The doctors and nurses were being administered the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab at the functioning vaccination centres.
This comes after Chief Executive of the HSE Paul Reid said that in total, more than 80,000 vaccinations are to be administered this week.
"We have a very key week ahead of us, where we will be completing over 80,000 vaccinations," Reid said.
He said the figure is "almost double what we have been doing on a weekly basis".
Reid said that this week, "40,000 staff and residents in long-term care facilities will be getting their second dose" of the vaccine, and that 25,000 frontline healthcare will get the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The HSE said it aims to move into the next group – those aged 80-84 – in around three weeks.
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