EU exercising option to buy an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine

All doses are expected to be delivered this year, which would mean an extra 1 million doses for Ireland in 2021.

It comes as the total number of vaccines administered here exceeded 1.2 million as of Saturday.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency is expected to announce new advice on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine later this week after its rollout was paused. 

Professor of Biochemistry Luke O'Neill says he expects it to be given the go ahead;  

"The guideline will probably be over 30s. It's kind of settling at that level, you know, because if you're over 30 years still at reasonable risk of getting the disease. It's a moving thing obviously and we'll see, we're waiting aren't we yet again? We're waiting for the EMA, to make a statement and then the FDA in the US, but I have no doubt that that vaccine will come back because it's a very efficacious, very safe vaccine is the bottom line."