SO, EXACTLY HOW MANY DOSES WILL IRELAND BE GETTING THIS MONTH?

THE plan to ramp up the vaccine rollout in April has been dealt a blow after the Tánaiste said there will be a drop in the expected number of doses delivered.

Leo Varadkar said that fewer than a million doses will be delivered in April.

Last week, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil that 1.1million doses were scheduled to arrive over the next four weeks. But Mr Varadkar said yesterday: ‘I would like to get about a million a month through April, May and June, but it will be less than a million in April, more than a million in May and June.’

He said the Government can never be certain about supplies, adding that things can go wrong. ‘We do expect to have most adults vaccinated by the end of May and the vast majority of adults offered their first dose no later than the end of June,’ he added.

Some 112,000 vaccines arrived in Ireland on Wednesday, which means the Government reached its projection of receiving 1.187million vaccines in the first quarter of the year. The Government also plans to administer a total of one million doses by April 7, next Wednesday.

Mr Donnelly told the Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting this week that 860,000 vaccines would be delivered in April.

Mr Varadkar also told the Dáil yesterday that the decision to overhaul the vaccination rollout plan was made on public health advice from doctors and scientists from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.

After the most vulnerable and people over 70 have been inoculated, the rollout will be based on age groups, and not occupations as previously planned. ‘It’s made for very good reasons, and a very good reason is that people in their 50s and 60s are at much higher risk of getting severely ill or dying from Covid than people in their 20s and 30s,’ Mr Varadkar said.

‘As someone in their 30s has 0.2% chance of dying from Covid, somebody in their 50s is 1.3%, six times higher. For somebody in their 40s is 0.4%, for somebody in their 60s is 3.6% – nine times higher.

‘There is no group, no profession, other than healthcare workers, that is at higher risk of getting severely ill from Covid or dying from Covid, than the average person in their 60s and that’s why it makes sense to prioritise people in their 60s and 50s.

‘One thing that is very advantageous, I think, about moving towards an age-based system is that it is simple. All you need is proof of date of birth.’

The move has been fiercely criticised by gardaí and teachers, who have argued that their occupations means that they face a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 than someone in their 50s or 60s who can work remotely.

‘No group is at a higher risk’