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The first batch of 10,000 doses of the Pfizer BioTech Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Ireland, hours before a record number of daily cases was announced.
The shipment landed after Health Minister Stephen Donnelly signed the regulation authorizing the use of the vaccine on Christmas Eve.
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Professor Brian MacCraith, who is overseeing the launch of the vaccine, tweeted: “After a truly horrible year, the arrival of vaccines today represents a bright new dawn of hope.
“Vaccination is a gateway to the opportunity for the Irish to protect themselves against this terrible virus. The initial application (same across EU 27) is now at -71 degrees Celsius.”
The handover took place when Ireland announced 1,296 new cases. Six other deaths were also reported.
The vaccines will be administered starting Wednesday of next week with those in nursing homes and some healthcare workers first in line.
HSE CEO Paul Reid tweeted this morning that he was on track to receive the first installment of 10,000, with another 30,000 arriving next week.
Paul Reid posted: “An early morning start to a momentous day. Leaving to receive the first delivery of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for HSE. Surely there will be better days ahead. For now, #staysafe.”
In the last hour, a photo was posted of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly posing next to vaccine refrigeration units.
BACK TO NORMAL
The development comes after Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that Ireland would start to return to normal in the second half of 2021.
He told the Irish Sun: “If we can immunize and protect the most vulnerable, that is already starting to give us greater freedom in terms of the political choices and decisions we make.
“And certainly vaccine manufacturing will increase from March onwards and we would have identified May-June as critical months in terms of high volumes of incoming vaccines.
“So I think starting in the summer, I think we will see a certain degree of normalcy return.
But I can’t be definitive about that. Because we see even this week in the UK the impact of a mutant variant of the virus and the dramatic impact it has had on life in Britain. And here too. . . Then it can change. “
He added: “The Moderna vaccine is arriving faster now, and AstaZenica will also be here in January. So at the end of January we will have three shots. So what I’m saying here is conservative.
HOPE SCENARIO
“I was also able to see a scenario where manufacturing increases more quickly and where larger volumes of vaccines reach the member states more quickly and that is the most hopeful scenario.
“And we have seen how those of Pfizer and Moderna have arrived faster than we thought.
“I think it will be a tentative return to normalcy. I think we’ll have to be careful about that. “
He explained: “Regarding the restrictions, we will review them continuously. I’ve made this point consistently: in the second wave we did things differently. . . so schools stayed open, construction stayed open.
“This time, in terms of nonessential retail. There are areas that we will look at again on January 12, let’s see where we are in terms of numbers.
“But in terms of where we are now, it is reasonable to say that some of the restrictions in some of the sectors will be long-term.”
LAST CASE NUMBERS
There have been a total of 2,200 Covid-19-related deaths and 85,394 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
In announcing tonight’s figures, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan said: “For the second day in a row we reported over a thousand confirmed cases of Covid-19.
“Within weeks of easing the measures in early December, we have now returned to the very high levels of Covid-19 circulating in the community that we had not seen since the peak of the second wave of this disease. This is very on.
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“While today is a positive day with the arrival of the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 (Comirnaty) vaccine, that does not mean that we can relax our compliance with public health measures.
“We should continue to stay home, avoid social contact whenever possible, avoid visiting friends and family, and not having visitors in our homes.
“Our adherence to public health advice will continue to be our best defense against this disease and will help us protect our vulnerable loved ones from the effects of Covid-19.”
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