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Nine Covid-19 ultra-low freezer lorries have arrived in the country to assist in the rollout of the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine.<\/p>\nNine Covid-19 ultra-low freezer lorries have arrived in the country to assist in the rollout of the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine.<\/p>\n
The vaccine, which requires temperatures of between -70C and -80C to be stored properly, has been shown to be up to 95 per cent effective.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin told the D\u00e1il the storage lorries arrived in the country on Tuesday and are being kept at a depot in Citywest.<\/p>\n
The UK has already approved the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine and rollout in Northern Ireland could begin early next week.<\/p>\n
But the Taoiseach said an assessment by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which will oversee approval for Ireland, may not be complete until December 29th.<\/p>\n
Speaking during Leaders\u2019 Questions on Wednesday, Mr Martin said: \u201cWork is proceeding at pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday a delivery was taken of up to nine ultra-low-fridge trucks into the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re stored in Citywest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIn terms of the Pfizer\/BioNTech the infrastructure is already coming into play in terms of the low ultra storage fridges that have now arrived into the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be commissioned by the middle of next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the issue is they have to be distributed within five days from a central depot when a vaccine ultimately arrives here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The executive director of the EMA, Emer Cooke, spoke to EU health ministers on Wednesday morning in relation to the rollout of the vaccine.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said: \u201cAt the latest they will assess the Pfizer\/BioNtech vaccine on December 29 at the latest, maybe before that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour leader Alan Kelly said there were still a number of outstanding questions about the vaccine, and repeated his call for a dedicated minister to oversee its introduction.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe need a standing group that\u2019s going to be able to deal with this and communicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf private companies come and say they want to vaccinate all their staff are they going to be able to do so?<\/p>\n
\u201cCan people buy it privately themselves?<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of that needs to be in place very, very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need somebody who\u2019s going to be in charge, who\u2019s going to make all those executive decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Martin has signaled that it will fall to the Minister for Health and the HSE to oversee the rollout.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the HSE is to step up its contact-tracing efforts from next week, to determine the source of Covid-19 outbreaks.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach said: \u201cNext week the HSE, on December 8th, will commence a new strand of source investigations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll go back seven days to actually get to the location where a spreader event began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat capacity exists and they\u2019ve been preparing for this.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that will be an important tool to the HSE and the public health teams, to identify super spreader events or events where virus spread originated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach also said the Government is examining if requirements for international travelers to take Covid-19 tests could be made mandatory.<\/p>\n
It comes amid concerns that international travel, which has dropped to about 10 per cent of 2019 levels, could rise in the lead up to Christmas, potentially increasing the chance of importing cases of Covid-19 into the country.<\/p>\n
Random checks are also set to be carried out at ports and airports.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said: \u201cRandom checks will be rolled out across airports and ports by immigration officials, who will select a portion of arrivals to see whether they have supporting documentation for either essential travel or a negative Covid-19 PCR test in the possession of the passenger.\u201d<\/p>\n