Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 April 2021

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:10 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy should get briefings on this. I will try to make arrangements with the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach's office to ensure that happens.

On vaccines, 112,000 vaccines arrived last night which meant that we reached the target estimate of receiving 1.187 million vaccines in the first quarter. Supplies are now firming up. More than 800,000 vaccines have already been given and we expect that to hit about 1 million doses given by 7 April. We can never be 100% sure about supplies; things can always go wrong. However, they are coming in and supply is firming up, which is very encouraging.

We expect to get about 1 million a month through April, May and June, but it will be less than 1 million in April and more than 1 million in May and June. We 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.

The good news is the data keeps coming in and it shows that the vaccines work. They work on the variants too in terms of preventing serious illness and death. As the head of Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US said yesterday, it appears that the vaccines prevent transmission as well. That is really encouraging.

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