R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats, has welcomed today\u2019s news that the European Medicines Agency has recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine for authorisation in the EU.<\/p>\n
Deputy Shortall commented:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s news that the EMA has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine will come as a relief, especially to older people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is regrettable that, at this stage, we are guaranteed less than half of the original number that had been expected before the end of March. This will obviously slow down the delivery of the vaccine and will likely impede the projections for Ireland\u2019s vaccination timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe expectation now is that approximately 190,000 doses will be delivered in February, with that number reducing to 95,000 in March. Hopefully, through pressure from the EU, it will be possible to increase the number of doses delivered into Ireland and bring the total figure up closer to what we were originally expecting, which is 600,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, it is crucial that when the AstraZeneca vaccines are delivered, there is no delay whatsoever in administering them as soon as they arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
January 29, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats, has welcomed today\u2019s news that the European Medicines Agency has recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine for authorisation in the EU. Deputy Shortall commented: \u201cToday\u2019s news that the EMA has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine will come as a relief, especially to older people. \u201cIt is regrettable that, at this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n