First doses of 'game changer' AstraZeneca vaccine arrive in Ireland

The HSE received the first delivery of AstraZeneca vaccine today for the coronavirus. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan

The first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have arrived in Ireland this afternoon, the HSE has confirmed. 

The delivery of 21,600 doses has been welcomed by the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, who has previously described the vaccine as a "game changer" due to ease of storage.

Mr Donnelly said the vaccine arrived this afternoon from Belgium and is in storage at national cold chain store in Dublin. 

Healthcare workers are to receive the first doses on Monday, he said in a post on Twitter. 

However, the arrival of the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine follows a decision to only vaccinate those in the vulnerable over-70s group with Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines after advice that AstraZeneca could be less effective in older people, due to lack of data on the effectiveness for that age cohort.

This has led to changes to in vaccination programme following advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). 

Approximately 21,600 doses have been received with the next batch due to arrive the following week. Picture: Marc O'Sullivan

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin has admitted the move away from using AstraZeneca, which can be easily stored and administered by GPs, will pose challenges.

"That will mean change in terms of the operation of the plan and will be a significant logistical challenge to the Health Service Executive, and they're currently working through the implications of this," Mr Martin said.

admitted the move away from using AstraZeneca, which can be easily stored and administered by GPs, will pose challenges.

"That will mean change in terms of the operation of the plan and will be a significant logistical challenge to the Health Service Executive, and they're currently working through the implications of this," Mr Martin said.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca was the subject of furious scrutiny by the European Commission (EC) due to fears around reductions in vaccine delivery plans.

A political back and forth blame game followed over contract agreements and yield issues in factory production between the company and the EC. 

Today's 21,600 doses are the first to arrive of the 190,000 doses scheduled for the month of February.

It remains unclear how much of the final quantity of the scheduled 600,000 doses for the first quarter would arrive.