Almost 4m vaccine doses to arrive before July

Taoiseach, Micheal Martin at the Citywest Vaccination Centre in Saggart, Co Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Almost 4m doses of Covid-19 vaccines are expected to come into Ireland before July, with those aged 65 to 69 set to be able to book their jabs within two weeks.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the portal for booking vaccines would open in the week of April 19, with HSE chief Paul Reid saying that vaccinations could start that week.

The confirmation comes as the Taoiseach said Ireland will receive about 930,000 vaccine doses in April, 1.2m in May, and about 1.7m in June.

"You’re looking at close to 4m doses in quarter two," he said.

The Department of Health said that of the 3.9m doses, 2.1m will be the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, with 813,000 Astrazeneca and 600,000 Johnson & Johnson doses. 

The latter is a single-dose vaccine and would allow that many people be fully vaccinated.

Those figures, the department cautioned, are contingent on supply contracts and schedules being met.

Government sources said they did not represent the number of vaccines which will be delivered, but that the figure was "encouraging".

The acceleration of the vaccination programme may also see an expansion of the so-called "vaccine bonus".

Currently, those who are fully vaccinated can meet up with no masks or distancing. 

Under new plans, those who are vaccinated may no longer have to self-isolate if identified as a close contact of a case of Covid-19.

However, the health minister cannot say how many people will be vaccinated this week and has yet to set timelines for when various age groups will receive their first jab.

The Government has consistently missed its own vaccination targets and has yet to administer 1m doses, despite promising to have achieved this by the end of last month.

Asked when a 40-year-old person could expect to be vaccinated, Stephen Donnelly said "in June or July". 

The specific timeframe would be announced later this week.

Mr Donnelly also confirmed that the target of administering 1m vaccines this month will now not be achieved but said the programme will be “ramped up” in April and May with vaccination centres doing “more and more of the heavy lifting”.

Asked when we can expect to be vaccinating 250,000 a week, as had been promised from this month, Mr Donnelly said: "I haven't got the week by week figures in front of me", but again stated that the programme is being ramped up.

He later suggested that it will be June before vaccination centres are working at full capacity and are rolling out 250,000 doses each week.

"So actually, by the time we're moving into late May, June, we'll be doing quite a bit in excess of 250,000. Obviously, it'll be a bit less this month, it'll be a bit more in June."

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One, Mr Donnelly said that 19 of the planned 38 vaccination centres around the country were now open and that last week 130,000 vaccinations were carried out.

But he could not say how many people will be vaccinated this week, stating that he "doesn't have the exact figure" .

However, the Department of Health yesterday released their projected deliveries which promised 929,000 doses this month, 1.25m vaccines in May and 1.75m in June.