Ireland has completed a deal to purchase 700,000 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from Romania.
The additional doses are being secured directly from manufacturer Pfizer, in a redistribution of supplies that had originally been ordered by Romania.
It was reported at the beginning of July that Ireland had agreed a deal in principle to purchase one million unwanted Covid-19 vaccines from Romania, made up of 700,000 doses from Pfizer and 300,000 from Moderna.
We’ve completed a deal to secure an additional 700,000 #CovidVaccines from Romania/EU.
Fantastic news and a welcome boost to our rollout, which continues to experience huge support and uptake from the Irish public.— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) August 3, 2021
In an update on Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin tweeted: “We’ve completed a deal to secure an additional 700,000 #CovidVaccines from Romania/EU.
“Fantastic news and a welcome boost to our rollout, which continues to experience huge support and uptake from the Irish public.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: “Great news that we have secured an additional 700,000 vaccines from the EU through Romania.
“These will be delivered throughout August and will allow us to continue to ramp up the rollout of the vaccination programme. Well done to @roinnslainte (Department of Health) officials on finalising the deal.”
Younger people
In a statement, the Department of Health confirmed the vaccine deliveries would be made up of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
“The doses secured through the agreement will be used to support the continued acceleration of the vaccination programme to younger people. The additional doses, which are being secured directly from Pfizer, are a redistribution of supplies which had originally been ordered by Romania,” it said.
“Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer is now to confirm the precise dates for the delivery of this additional supply, which is expected to arrive in Ireland this month.”
