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22nd Feb 2021

Leo Varadkar says “summer should be better” as Ireland prepares to ramp-up vaccinations

Alan Loughnane

Leo Varadkar

It comes as Denmark said it hopes to have its entire population vaccinated by the middle of June.

100,000 vaccinations will take place in Ireland this week and there will be 250,000 vaccinations each week from April, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.

In a tweet on Sunday night, Varadkar said “summer should be better” as he outlined a ramp up in the administering of vaccines in Ireland.

“I know we’re getting tired of lockdown but here’s positive thought for the week ahead,” he wrote.

“Next week, for first time, more than 100,000 people will receive vaccine. Ramp-up continues. In April, it’ll be c250k a week. Vaccination works and will help us end pandemic. Summer should be better.”

From April, it’s expected that vaccination numbers will increase, with jabs available in GPs, pharmacies, and up to nine large and more than 25 medium-sized mass vaccination centres.

Ireland has a tentative timeline of September to deliver a vaccine for everyone who wants one, depending on vaccine supply.

Ireland has faced criticism in recent weeks over the speed of the vaccine rollout, with 320,000 vaccine doses administered in Ireland so far, out of which 120,000 people have been fully vaccinated.

This means that less than 4% of the entire population has received its first jab while in the north of Ireland, 23.3% of the population, or 436,143 people, have been administered with a first dose.

The rollout of the vaccine in EU countries has been markedly slower than in the UK, which has more supplies of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, Denmark announced earlier this week that it has moved the expected completion date of vaccinations forward by a week to 27 June.

“Overall this means we can look forward to receiving 900,000 more doses than we expected to as of last week – and that means that we can expect to have vaccinated everyone who wants this… no later than 27 June,” Danish Health Authority director Søren Brostrøm said.

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