Ireland is in line for nearly another 100,000 vaccines from AstraZeneca, as the European Commission has been given further commitments on supply.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced on Twitter that agreement has been reached with the company for another nine million doses for delivery in the first quarter.
The announcement brings to 40 million doses the number that AstraZeneca is to supply the EU.
Ireland's share of this would be around 99,000 bringing the expected supply from AstraZeneca to 400,000 of the 600,000 promised.
AstraZeneca will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled, Ms von der Leyen said on twitter.
Step forward on vaccines.@AstraZeneca will deliver 9 million additional doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week's offer & will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 31, 2021
The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.
"The company will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe," she said.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said this represents progress and "will mean more vaccines for Ireland in the next two months".
It follows a row between the EU and AstraZeneca over the supply of vaccines, after the company said there would be a shortage of doses due to a production issue. The EU had sought doses be sent from factories in Britian to make up for this.
The company had offered to bring forward some deliveries to the EU, and had also offered eight million more doses to try to defuse the dispute, but one EU official said that was too far short of what was originally promised, as AstraZeneca had committed to at least 80 million shots in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of Ireland's drugs regulator, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, has said we should know by the end of this quarter how effective the AstraZeneca vaccine is in older age groups.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Dr Lorraine Nolan said that what we have seen so far is that this vaccine has an efficacy of 60%, but we do not yet know what the level will be in those over the age of 65.
What we do know is that the vaccine is safe for use in older populations, Dr Nolan said, adding that clinical trials have also shown that the vaccine produced a very good immune response.
Based on that, and comparisons between this vaccine and other vaccines, she said there is no reason to suggest that the vaccine will not work in those older populations, but they cannot say for certain at this point what the level of efficacy is.
She said national immunisation advisory committees across Europe will review all of the regulatory information and will also take into account wider public health circumstance for each member state.
In relation to the possibility of needing booster shots in the future, Dr Nolan said we do not know right now but it is "something that remains under review".
No need for EC chief to consider position - McGuinness
Meanwhile, EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness has said the EU's intention to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol - in response to the row with AstraZeneca over the supply of vaccines - was a mistake that has had consequences, and there has been fallout.
She said the normal and proper scrutiny of such a decision did not happen in this instance.
On Friday it emerged that the European Commission was to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol to bring about new monitoring controls on exports of Covid-19 vaccines.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, the Commissioner said it had not been brought to her attention in advance.
"I put my hands up on behalf of the commission, this has not been good for the European Commission," she said.
Ms McGuiness pointed to what she called justifiable anger towards AstraZeneca over the vaccine row as to why it happened, but said "It shouldn't have happened".
She said everyone was upset and annoyed that it happened but it would not require Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to consider her position.
Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU's intention was not a hostile act, and there was now an opportunity to re-engage to ensure the smooth operation of the Northern Ireland protocol.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, he said: "My observation is that the terrible row is an acrimonious row between AstraZeneca and the (EU) Commission over the contractual obligations of the company in respect of supplying vaccines to European member states took centre stage here, and people were blindsided by the decision that was taken and the implications for the Protocol."
The Taoiseach stressed it took four years to negotiate the Protocol to facilitate access for Northern Ireland's economy to the single market, as well as to the UK market and to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
"It's a good thing, the Protocol, overall. There are issues there that we have to fine-tune and work out, but essentially I think there are positives there medium-term for Northern Ireland in terms of its economic development which we should not underestimate.
"We are only four weeks into the operation of the Protocol, there are bound to be teething problems but I do acknowledge the need for engagement here on all sides, between the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Irish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive."
Mr Martin said there is a "strong sense across Europe" that AstraZeneca has not delivered on commitments around the vaccination.
He said: "Europe signed up, made financial commitments to Astrazeneca, had an expectation of significant higher volumes of vaccines to be delivered in a timely manner which is not now materialising.
"People need to realise that if you were in a contract and you had expectations and you'd signed up to something and that didn't materialise, you'd be fairly angry too and there would be a lot of tension about the place. And that, in my view, has happened here."
He added: "The same type of tensions do not appear to have arisen in relation to the other companies"
Mr Martin said the commission was seeking to ensure transparency in the supply of vaccines, "but used the wrong mechanism in invoking Article 16 to deal with it".
Mr Martin said he had articulated to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen "the very serious implications the move would have for the operation of the protocol and the protocol itself".
He also said it was not the case that he first heard of the EU's plan during a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Mr Martin said he had spoken to Mr Johnson after the European Commission signalled the article would be triggered.
The Taoiseach also said more people getting vaccinated across Europe is a good thing.
"We were watching what's happening in the UK and saying, 'well done, you are vaccinating quickly and that's important'," he said.
"Overall, across Europe we all need to roll out the vaccination programme as effectively and efficiently as we can, so I would like if we can dial down the tone and work collegially is the best way to deal with this."
Asked whether he would like to see any UK surplus of the vaccination distributed to Ireland, Mr Martin said there is a long way to go yet.
"The UK has a long way to go, we have a long way to go, Europe has long way to go," he said.
"I think all of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that the developing world, and particularly frontline workers in the developing world, are vaccinated as well because this is a global situation.
"There's very little point in the virus raging across developing countries while we vaccinate 100% here because that would mean more mutations.
"We have a journey to go but I think we will get there if we can just calm down.
"There's an understandable race against time in relation to getting the vaccines out but, if you think about it, what has happened in the last 10 months has been truly remarkable that we've managed to facilitate the development of vaccines in such a short space of time.
"I understand that anxiety, but we will get there."
