Professor Fiona Lyons:

That will depend on a number of factors. When we will run out depends on what the uptake is like. Based on a survey in which people in Ireland participated, there was an anticipated acceptance of offer of approximately 85%, which is a very high uptake rate. Our experience thus far within people who have been invited forward for vaccines as opposed to self-booking for a vaccine is that it has not been that high. It has been between 50% and 70%, varying over certain clinic times.

The acceptance rate in terms of how many people will accept the offer of vaccination is one thing that will determine how quickly we will run out of vaccines. The important thing is to communicate. As Dr. Igoe indicated, we have already seen a change in the trajectory of the numbers with the combined prevention health promotion and health protection approach that has been adopted and communicated to people who may be at risk of infection. That will need to continue in the setting of limited access to vaccines.

Like with any outbreak response, the vaccines are not the only part of the response. They are an important component of the response but not the only part of it. Therefore, an important thing will be to support individuals, and this has been stated within the communications plan, who may be at risk and who do not have access to vaccines in mitigating their risk of acquiring-----