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The Taoiseach said the shortfall of Covid-19 vaccines last week will be made up in the coming days.<\/p>\nThe Taoiseach said the shortfall of Covid-19 vaccines last week will be made up in the coming days.<\/p>\n
The HSE missed its target of administering 100,000 doses of coronavirus.<\/p>\n
Figures published on Monday shows that 81,843 doses were administered last week, falling short of its 100,000 target.<\/p>\n
The HSE said it was told by AstraZeneca late last week that its deliveries were being deferred.<\/p>\n
Miche\u00e1l Martin told the D\u00e1il that the company believes the shortfall will be made up in the next week and further doses of the vaccine will be delivered.<\/p>\n
He said there has been \u201cbumps along the way\u201d in the delivery of vaccines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is the ongoing issue of supply from AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have, without question, been bumps along the way, most recently a shortfall of supply last week from AstraZeneca, as the chair of the (vaccine) taskforce said last Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vast majority of the over-85s will have received their coronavirus vaccine by the end of the week, the Department of Health said.<\/p>\n
Co-leader of the Social Democrats Roisin Shortall raised concerns over the number of vaccines forecast to be delivered.<\/p>\n
She told the D\u00e1il there is a \u201cvery substantial gap\u201d between the numbers of vaccines to be delivered and the number that is being administered.<\/p>\n
Ms Shortall said that vaccines provide great hope for people, and that the vast majority of people are really looking forward to getting them.<\/p>\n
She said that people are keen to know when they\u2019re likely to receive the vaccine.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of us have been looking into the Minister for Health (Stephen Donnelly) to provide the figures in relation to the performance of the vaccine program,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you and the minister has said that we\u2019re delivering the vaccines, we\u2019re getting them out and administering them as quickly as they arrive, but there\u2019s no way of gauging that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019re getting the daily figures for the administration of the vaccine, the other side of that equation is in relation to the number of vaccines that have arrived in this country is not available.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only data that is available in relation to vaccine deliveries here comes from the Path Ahead document, and there\u2019s a table set out there, so they\u2019re the only official figures we have for the forecasted deliveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose figures would indicate that there\u2019s a very substantial gap between the numbers of vaccines forecasted to be delivered here, and the number that are actually being administered \u2013 a very, very substantial gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that more than two thirds of AstraZeneca vaccines have not to have been administered, while four fifth of Moderna has not yet been administered yet.<\/p>\n
Ms Shortall called on the Government to publish the daily figures of the numbers of doses received by the State.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to have all of that data on a daily basis,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said the issues around supply were discussed at the European Council meeting.<\/p>\n
He said there was a dedicated meeting last Thursday about European-wide vaccination.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, America and Europe are the major production centers for vaccines and supply is the issue across the board,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope has appointed a Commissioner to deal with removing bottlenecks affecting supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Irish context, we are administering that which we are getting in.\u201d<\/p>\n