The cabinet has agreed to enter an advanced purchase order for 875,000 doses of the Moderna COVID vaccine.
The EU is expecting to buy around 80 million doses of which Ireland will get a little more than 1 per cent.
It means there are now purchase orders between Ireland and five of the vaccines under development.
We just announced that the European Commission has approved an agreement to secure 80 million doses of mRNA-1273, with the option to increase their purchase to a total of up to 160 million doses. Read more: https://t.co/G5wLVcGR51 #mRNA pic.twitter.com/lSTZQ5eMAt
— Moderna (@moderna_tx) November 25, 2020
That would give the country access to more than 10 million doses of vaccine - though some will be a double dose.
Infectious Disease Expert Expects A 12 Month Wait For Vaccine
Despite the good news, Infectious Disease Professor Jack Lambert has doubts.
Prof Lambert said the six week lockdown "wasn't being enforced" and that it failed to "supress the virus to the level that was expected."
He said we need to find ways to keep the case numbers down while we wait for a vaccine.
"We have to get people onto personal responsibility for the next ten to twelve months until the vaccine is rolled out."
He said the vaccine will not be administered in January or February - "It's going to be much longer than that."
