1.1 million doses of vaccine will arrive instead of 1.24 million

by



[ad_1]

Health Service CEO Paul Reid has said that only 1.1 million doses of vaccines are likely to arrive in Ireland in the first three months of this year, against an expectation of 1.24 million.

He told an Oireachtas Health Committee that a large number of vaccinations, about 175,000, were expected by the last day of March and that the delays meant that the 1.2 million target would not be reached until the first week of April.

Reid said an original figure of 1.7 million doses was based on advance purchase agreements with manufacturers.

It was then adjusted to a 1.4m target and then lowered back to 1.24m.

Sinn Féin Health spokesperson David Cullinane asked how many times HSE has had to adjust its plan due to supply problems.

Reid said the operational plan had already been changed 15 to 17 times due to supply issues and changes in sequence and prioritization.

“Our first quarter has been an experience of high levels of frustration over supply issues, to be honest. Pfizer has been more stable but we had a change in their supply line. Modern, lately, unstable and certainly AstraZeneca has been unstable, ” he said.

“That has also been a problem across the EU. We would expect the second quarter to have a higher level of predictability.”

Reid said the first doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, if approved, are expected to arrive in Ireland from mid-April and not early April as initially planned.

J & J’s vaccine, which only requires one dose for protection, is expected to be approved on March 11 for use in the European Union by the European Medicines Agency and EU officials have said deliveries could begin on March 11. next month.

“Johnson & Johnson’s guess is around 600,000 in the second quarter, but it’s mostly behind. Smaller figures in mid-April,” Reid told the committee.

Ireland has ordered 2.2 million single-dose vaccines from Johnson & Johnson in advance.

A decision on the approval of this vaccine is expected this week by the European Medicines Agency.

Latest coronavirus stories

Overall, 3.8 million doses of vaccine are expected in the second quarter, including 600,000 doses from Johnson & Johnson.

An antigen test for use in meat plants has been validated and will be kept under review by HSE, he said.

So far, 15 cases of the variant first detected in South Africa have been identified in Ireland along with six of the Brazilian variant.

The HSE said that retrospective contact tracing is happening in some cases, and it will increase as the number of cases drops to less than 600 steadily.

He said recent serial tests in nursing homes have revealed positivity rates of just 0.2% and the positivity rate among healthcare workers, which was 16% in the first week of January, is now about 4%. .

Mr. Reid said this can be attributed to the decrease in cases of the virus in the community, but also to the vaccination program.

Yesterday, the chairman of the Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group of the National Public Health Emergency Team, Professor Philip Nolan, said there is sustained and “perhaps even accelerated” progress in suppressing the transmission of Covid-19.

Speaking at the Department of Health’s Covid-19 briefing, Professor Nolan said the average case count has dropped by at least 100 week-to-week for the past four weeks.

His comments came after the Health Department reported 437 new Covid-19 cases and no more deaths.

Additional information Fergal Bowers, Tommy Meskill



[ad_2]