Vaccinations to start early this week, says HSE chief

 Chair of the Covid-19 vaccination taskforce Professor Brian MacCraith, Chairperson of the High-Level Task Force, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, Paul Reid, Country Manager, Pfizer Healthcare Ireland and Paul Reid, CEO, HSE pictured as the HSE Takes delivery of the first doses of Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan

The HSE chief has said they hope vaccinations can begin on Tuesday, December 29.

He told RTÉ's This Week: "We want to do this right.

"The intention is to start early next week, on December 29."

He said that HSE teams are currently working on the registration and consent process.

"What we do in the first few days is very important. We will be doing it at a pace but safely," he said.

Earlier, Mr Reid warned about the “alarming” numbers of people being tested for Covid-19.

He tweeted: “Testing and tracing volumes now at alarming levels.

“Our highest daily tests now at 23,000.

“Community positivity reaching 10%. Close contacts averaging at five people.

“Tracing calls gone from less than 10K to now over 3OK per week.

“Please review New Year plans to keep safe."

Testing & tracing volumes now at alarming levels. Our highest daily tests now at 23,000. Community positivity reaching 10%. Close contacts averaging at 5 people. Tracing calls gone from less than 10K to now over 3OK per week. Please review New Year Plans to keep safe. @HSELive

— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) December 27, 2020

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar says more vaccines are coming on stream.

"We'd anticipate that the Moderna vaccine will be approved on January 6," he said.

"That's not part of the current schedule you'll see in the papers today so that'll bring additionality already in the first half of January.

He added: "There seems to be a good chance that the AstraZeneca one will be approved by the end of January and that's particularly important because we've pre-ordered a huge number of them; more so than we did for Pfizer."