Government needs to accelerate Covid vaccine programme 'to ease public anxiety'

Sinn Féin has called on the government to take early deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine to ensure it can be rolled out as soon as it is approved by European authorities. Picture: A single dose of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is given to a patient in the UK.

The Government should take delivery to the AstraZeneca "game changer" vaccine now, so it can be rolled out immediately after it is approved, the leader of Sinn Féin has said.

Such a move would ensure the country can press ahead in the vaccine programme which has, in recent days, been criticised for its slow start.