Taoiseach Micheál Martin has welcomed the news that Pfizer will supply more of its Covid-19 vaccine to the EU.
After a tumultuous few days that saw issues with the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the Fianna Fàil leader believes that this move from Pfizer will help boost Ireland's vaccine plans.
"Welcome news that Ireland will be receiving close to 545,000 extra BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines, starting this month," he said.
The pharmaceutical giant has pledged to "speed up the delivery of vaccines. 50 million additional doses of BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines will be delivered in Q2 starting in April."
Negotiations are also underway to supply 1.8 billion doses of a second-generation of its mRNA vaccine to combat variants, said Ursula von der Leyen in her televised address.
On social media, the President of the EU Commission added: "We have just agreed with BioNTech-Pfizer to once again speed up vaccine delivery in the EU. The delivery of 50 million doses will be accelerated to Q2, starting in April.
"This is a 25% increase, bringing the number of doses delivered by BioNTech-Pfizer to the EU in Q2 to 250 million. Preparing for the future: we are starting negotiations with BioNTech-Pfizer for a 3rd contract. It will foresee the delivery of 1.8 billion additional vaccine doses in 2021-2023. Production of vaccines & all essential components will be based in the EU. Other contracts may follow!"
Ireland is considering extending the gap between Pfizer vaccine doses.
The time period between inoculations of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine could move to more than four weeks to keep its vaccine programme on track while other vaccines are restricted, the health minister said on Wednesday.
"We are looking for options for how we can keep the pace of the vaccine programme going given the news we've had" on restrictions to AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines," Stephen Donnelly told journalists.
"Certainly extending the interval for Pfizer beyond the four weeks is something that is being looked at," he said.
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