EU pre-orders 80m extra doses of Moderna vaccine

The European Commission is ordering an extra 80 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.

It means 160 million vaccines will be distributed to member states with Ireland getting about 1.61 million of those.

The first delivery is expected early next year if it gets approval.

Moderna says the jab can be transported under controlled conditions in a liquid state at -2.8 degrees which will help distribute the vaccine to harder to reach locations.