Head Of Covid Vaccine Taskforce Says Country Set To Receive Biggest Delivery Of Pfizer Jabs To Date

Professor Brian MacCraith's told the Irish Independent that 600,000 doses will be delivered over the next fortnight

He says the vaccine programme will gain "very significant momentum" in the next few weeks as the wait time for the second dose of AstraZeneca is reduced and vaccinations begin in younger cohorts.

He says the ramp-up is being driven by the threat of the Delta variant. 

Immunology Professor Dr Tomas Ryan says cases of the strain are down here but we need to be very cautious: 

"We've seen because of the sterling work of our public health teams that the community cases of the Delta variant in Ireland, seem to be being reduced, but if we keep importing it from across the water where 90% of cases are the Delta variant, then eventually as we open up, as we allow for more spread in the community, there's a risk that we will follow what's been happening in the United Kingdom."