Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said the issue with the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine is very frustrating and he said he spoke to the company about his concerns with supply last night.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said the issue with the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine is very frustrating and he said he spoke to the company about his concerns with supply last night.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said the AstraZeneca representative said the company was committed to the total volumes being delivered to Ireland but could not give dates.
Mr Donnelly said the company admitted to having “unanticipated problems” with supply chains and having a very significant manufacturing capacity.
“They admitted that they have had problems. What I emphasised last night was two issues.
“The first that we are very frustrated with the fact the volumes that we have agreed and were contracted for are not being met, and the volumes are constantly being revised down and causing a lot of problems in terms of logistics and a lot of anxiety among the public.”
He said what is going on with AstraZeneca is not just frustrating for Ireland but is a global issue.
Mr Donnelly also spoke of the effects that the vaccination programmes has had to date.
“Last week, in a one-week period between week eight and nine for the target groups we have vaccinated so far, there has been a nearly 50% reduction in Covid cases. That is astonishingly good news”.
But he added it increases the need to get the vaccines supplies into Ireland and critically on time. 
He said that while the first three weeks of the over -85 vaccine roll-out had “some issues”, the vast majority of the programme went well.
He admitted the issues such as delay on deliveries caused anxiety for patients and said the Health Service Executive is making changes to ensure improvements are made, such as a new call centre for GPs. 
“Whilst there has been a focus on the parts of that three-week programme that didn’t work, ultimately the target was to vaccinate 85s and older and the HSE is reporting 99% of that target was met.”
Meanwhile, co-leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shortall called on the Health Minister to publish a plan for the rollout of mass vaccination programme.
Ms Shortall told Morning Ireland that while various priority groups have been given assurances, “it would be good to see the plan set down on paper”.
She said that 12,000 vaccines are being administered each day and once supplies increase next month there will be a need to ramp it up to 35,000 doses a day.
The minister needs to give assurances that “everything is in place” for a larger rollout, she said, including that locations of mass vaccination centres are firmed up and the necessary staff are available.
She said that while it is important to recognise the volatility in the supply of vaccines, the messaging could be better for the over 70s and those identified as priority Group 4 with certain medical conditions.
People are waiting anxiously, she said, and there is a concern that expectations are being raised without clarity around the timescale involved in waiting for a vaccine.
Ms Shortall said the Government needs to continue at EU level to press for greater efforts to access vaccines from suppliers and for an early decision on approval of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.