Iceland will receive 8,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the second quarter of the year. Government officials expect to receive 166,000 total doses during this time.
The Ministry of Health however has stated that “there is no confirmed delivery schedule,” when asked by RÚV.
Care package in bound
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, made an announcement on Twitter stating that the European Union had reached an agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech to speed up the delivery of ten million doses in the second quarter.
We agreed with @BioNTech_Group @pfizer on an accelerated delivery of 10 million doses for quarter 2.⁰
This will bring the total deliveries of this vaccine to 200 million doses for that quarter.⁰
It will give Member States room to manoeuvre and possibly fill gaps in deliveries. pic.twitter.com/abBr3lKUXc— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 16, 2021
This will mean that 200 million doses of the vaccine will be distributed during this period.
Not up to scratch
The European Union has recently come under fire for their vaccine purchases. Hopes were pinned on AstraZeneca, however they have not been able meet its delivery schedule meaning fewer vaccines have been distributed than expected.
There is also uncertainty about whether the AstraZeneca vaccine will be re-used after many countries, including Iceland, have temporarily stopped using the vaccine whilst an investigation is conducted to discover whether there is a link between the vaccine and blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency will deliver its final opinion tomorrow but representatives have stated that they consider the vaccine to be safe.
Still vaccines on the way… Hopefully
Four vaccines have been granted a conditional marketing authorization by the European Medicines Agency; Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen.
It is not currently known whether the Janssen vaccine will be able to be delivered but it is hoped that it will be next month.
According to responses from the ministry, a delivery plan is expected from the company in the coming weeks.
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