Stephen Donnelly also said that Ireland has one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in Europe.
It comes as the health service in Ireland plans to ramp up its vaccine programme following months of setbacks and missed targets.
Despite plans to administer one million doses of Covid-19 vaccines throughout April, the Government revised down its target to around 860,000 vaccines.
One in six adults in Ireland has now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. The no of people w/Covid in ICUs has fallen by about 75% since peak in late January. We've one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in Europe now. We're making huge progress.— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) April 6, 2021