Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 March 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Covid-19 Public Health Measures: Update from Health Service Executive

Mr. Paul Reid:

That will be over quarter 2 but primarily back-ended. There will be smaller numbers in mid-April and then there will be greater supply in the following two months, primarily from Johnson & Johnson.

To answer the Deputy's question in the round, our first quarter has been an experience of high levels of frustration with supply issues from the HSE's perspective. The supply from Pfizer has been more stable, although we did have one change to that supply line as well, while the supply from Moderna of late has been unstable, as has certainly been the supply from AstraZeneca.

We welcome the country manager being appointed by AstraZeneca. It has been a very frustrating quarter, overall, in terms of supply lines. That has been an EU-wide issue.

We expect, and would assume, based on what is happening worldwide, to have a higher level of predictability in the second quarter. The Johnson & Johnson one is a smaller element of our expected commitments. Having said that, there may be other vaccine supplies that will come on board. There may be other current suppliers who will strengthen their capacity for the next quarter. The next quarter will see some swings and roundabouts between suppliers and some other suppliers coming on board.

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