Ireland’s delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine could be smaller and later than expected.
It’s after the company has told the European Commission it’s cutting supplies to member states by 60%, due to reduced production at a manufacturing site.
The EU has expressed its ‘deep dissatisfaction’ with the development, and called for ‘reliability’ from the company.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says the announcement is a “real setback”, but he claims AstraZeneca will provide exact figures on supply at a meeting early next week
Limited supplies of a vaccine have already caused complications at the local St Luke’s Hospital, as reported here.
A local GP says it’s been “heart sinking” to see such shortages of the jab at the general hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny.
Dr Paula Greally has been describing the situation to KCLR;
“We worked very closely as GPs with our colleagues in St Luke’s in terms of providing patient care. It’s really heart sinking to see that the vaccine supply isn’t there at the moment for the staff within St Luke’s” she shared.
“There is a discrepancy there between the amount of vaccines coming into the country and the distribution of them. I don’t really know what’s happened, there does seem to be unequal distribution of vaccines across the country, between the hospital groups. It seems to be coming from a level higher-up.”
