Скачать или смотреть First batch of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines arrives in Ireland as HSE chief hails ‘momentous day’

THE first batch of the 10,000 doses of the Pfizer BioTech Covid-19 vaccine has arrived in Ireland. The shipment landed after Health Minister Stephen Donnelly signed the regulation authorising the vaccine's use on Christmas Eve. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/eu-p...
Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD , Paul Reid, CEO, HSE and Professor Brian MacCraith, Chairperson of the High-Level Task Force pictured as the HSE takes delivery of the first doses of Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine this morning
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Professor Brian MacCraith, who is overseeing the vaccine rollout, tweeted: "After a truly horrible year, the arrival of vaccines today represent a bright new dawn of hope.

"Vaccination is a gateway of opportunity for Irish people to protect themselves against this awful virus. The initial delivery (equal across all EU 27) is now in place at -71 deg C. "

The delivery was made as Ireland announced this evening a record daily number of Covid-19 cases - with 1,296. A further six deaths were also announced.

The vaccines are due to be administered from Wednesday of next week with those in care homes and some healthcare workers first in line.

HSE CEO Paul Reid tweeted this morning that he was on his way to receive the first delivery of 10,000 - with another 30,000 coming next week.

Paul Reid posted: "An early morning start to a momentous day. Heading off to take recepit of the first delivery of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for the HSE. There will be better days ahead for sure. For now, #staysafe."

In the past hour, a picture was released of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly posing alongside the vaccine refrigeration units.

BACK TO NORMAL
The development comes after Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Ireland would start returning to normal in second half of 2021.

He told the Irish Sun: "If we can immunise and can protect those most vulnerable, that already begins to give us a greater freedom in terms of policy options and decisions we take.

“And certainly the manufacturing of vaccines will ramp up March onwards and we would have identified May-June as critical months in terms of high volumes of vaccines coming in.

“So I think from the summer on, I think we’ll see a degree of normality returning.

“But I can’t be definite 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’s had on life in Britain. And here as well . . . So it can change.”

He added: “The Moderna vaccine is coming faster now, and AstaZenica will be here in January as well. So by the end of January we will have three vaccines. So what I’m saying here is conservative.

HOPEFUL SCENARIO
“I could also see a scenario in which manufacturing ramps up more quickly and where higher volumes of vaccines gets to member states more quickly and that’s the more hopeful scenario.

“And we’ve seen how the Pfizer and Moderna ones have come more quickly than we thought.

“I do believe it will be a tentative return to normality. I think we’ll have to be careful about it.”

He explained: “On the restrictions, we’ll continually review them. 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 non-essential retail. There are areas we’ll look at again on the 12th of January, see where we are in terms of the numbers.

“But in terms of where we are right now, it’s reasonable to say that some of the restrictions in some of the sectors will be for the longer haul.”

LATEST CASE NUMBERS
There has been a total of 2,200 Covid-19 related deaths and 85,394 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

Announcing this evening's figures, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said: “For the second day in a row we are reporting more than a thousand confirmed cases of Covid-19.

"Within a few short weeks of easing measures at the beginning of December, we have now returned to the very high levels of Covid-19 circulating in the community that we have not seen since the peak of Wave Two of this disease. This is very concerning.

Vaccine industry response to COVID-19

Overview
Vaccination is the main tool for primary prevention of disease and one of the most cost-effective public health measures available. Immunisation through vaccination is the best defence we have against serious, preventable, and sometimes deadly, contagious diseases. Thanks to widespread vaccination, smallpox has been eradicated, Europe made polio-free, and many other diseases almost eliminated.

European strategy against COVID-19

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