‘Some concerns’ over delivery of Johnson & Johnson vaccines

HSE chief Paul Reid said Ireland had received a “minimal supply” of the jab in May, around 60,000 doses, and so far have no supply dates for June.

Concern has been voiced over the supplies of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen coronavirus vaccine.

HSE chief Paul Reid said Ireland had received a “minimal supply” of the jab in May, around 60,000 doses, and so far have no supply dates for June.

“Some concerns have been expressed around delivery schedules and clarity of delivery schedules for Janssen,” he told an HSE media briefing on Thursday.

“We have to balance the pace and model of operation that we have had going over the last few weeks… that’s what we will be doing over the coming days.” 

As of Wednesday, more than 2.2 million vaccines had been administered in Ireland.

More than 1.6 million people have now received their first dose, around 43% of the adult population.

Meanwhile, the HSE’s chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry told the briefing that measures taken have slowed down the Indian variant of the virus.

There have been 59 cases of the variant confirmed in Ireland.

“That is certainly of some concern but the measures taken in this country, while they haven’t succeeded in completely preventing entry, certainly slowed down its entry and slowed down its spread, and that allows the vaccination programme to run through the population as quickly as possible,” he said.