Taoiseach confirms deal with Romania for 700,000 Covid vaccines

over 2 years in The Irish Times

Ireland has completed a deal for 700,000 Covid vaccines from Romania, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed.
The extra vaccine doses will come as a “welcome boost to our rollout,” Mr Martin tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
The doses announced this week are part of the same deal already announced in early July, which was then to cover one million vaccines.
The 700,000 vaccines are all Pfizer, with the status of 300,000 Moderna vaccines initially included in the scope of the deal unclear at present.
A statement from the Government is expected later on Tuesday afternoon.
Mr Martin said the deal was struck with “Romania/EU”.
Confirming the deal had been “completed”, Mr Martin said on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon it was “Fantastic news and a welcome boost to our rollout, which continues to experience huge support and uptake from the Irish public”.
Earlier, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said his expectations were “outstripped” when more than 30,000 Covid-19 vaccines were administered at walk-in centres over the bank holiday weekend.
He paid particular tribute to the many young people who availed of the opportunity to get a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus.
“Over 30,000 people were administered a vaccination at our walk in centres the weekend. Outstripping our expectations by far. All age groups went through but this initiative makes us beyond proud of younger people. When needed, they once again showed up in numbers,” Mr Reid tweeted.
Meanwhile, the coordinator of the HSE’s vaccination programme, Damian McCallion, has said that the success of the weekend’s walk-in vaccination centres will be evaluated to see if they will be repeated.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr McCallion said that the overall figure for the bank holiday weekend would be 30,000, half of whom had not been registered for the vaccine.
“Overall we’re very happy with it. It has worked very well.”
Monday was the busiest day of the weekend with 11,000 people aged over 16 availing of the walk-in vaccine facility at centres around the country. One walk in clinic remains open today in Tralee from 11am to 3pm, he added.
“We will evaluate now and see if we will do it again.”
While the majority of people attending the walk in clinics were young people, there were some from higher age groups, he said, including an 83-year-old in Sligo who availed of the opportunity to get the vaccine.
Mr McCallion pointed out that the vaccine will still be available through GPs and pharmacies and at the 42 vaccination centres around the country. “There are access options for people.”
Registration for teens aged 12 to 15 should open “in the next couple of weeks,” with an exact date to be announced later this week, said Mr McCallion.
He urged parents and guardians to “take the advice of the professionals” and make the choice to have their child vaccinated.

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