“Fantastic news and a welcome boost to our rollout.”
Ireland has completed a deal for 700,000 Covid-19 vaccines from Romania, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed on Tuesday.
Martin said that the extra vaccines would be a “welcome boost” to Ireland’s vaccine rollout.
The doses are part of a deal announced in early July which was expected to see one million vaccines delivered from Romania to Ireland.
The 700,000 vaccines are all Pfizer, while the 300,000 Moderna vaccines initially included in the deal have yet to be confirmed.
Confirming the news of the Pfizer vaccines on Twitter Martin said the deal had been “completed”.
He said: “We’ve completed a deal to secure an additional 700,000 Covid vaccines from Romania/EU.
“Fantastic news and a welcome boost to our rollout, which continues to experience huge support and uptake from the Irish public.”
A statement from the Government is expected later on Tuesday afternoon.
It comes as over 30,000 people used the walk-in vaccination centres that operated around the country over the Bank Holiday weekend.
It’s thought the HSE is considering reopening the walk-in vaccines because of the success of the initiative.
Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive Paul Reid has said the uptake had exceeded their “expectations by far”.
“All age groups went through but this initiative makes us beyond proud of younger people,” Reid said.
“When needed, they once again showed up in numbers.”
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