20million Pfizer jabs on order

IRELAND will receive almost 20million jabs by 2022 after the EU confirmed a new deal with mRNA vaccine providers Pfizer/BioNTech.

European Commision chief Ursula Von der Leyen tweeted yesterday that the EU has secured 900million Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccines, with an option to add 900million more.

The doses will be used as booster shots and will also be used for children and teenagers once vaccine trials receive approval from the European Medicines Agency.

Announcing the deal, Ms von der Leyen said: ‘Happy to announce that the EU Commission has just approved a contract for guaranteed 900million doses (+900 million options) with Pfizer-BioNTech for 2021-2023.’

She added: ‘Other contracts and other vaccine technologies will follow.’

Ireland has received vaccines under a population per rata basis of 1.11% of the total European delivery to date.

Pfizer is in the process of developing second-generation vaccines with the aim of addressing variants of concern.

Nationally, Ireland delivered its highest number of vaccines (46,157) in a single day on Thursday.

The weekly target for the HSE was 210,000 to 240,000 vaccines.

Today, 54-year-olds can register for vaccination through the portal or any time after, followed by 53-year-olds on Monday or any time after.