IRELAND is set to sign up for yet another coronavirus vaccine, this time from Moderna.
It'll be the fifth company Ireland has struck a deal with, after securing doses from Pfzier, AstraZeneca, Jansen and Sanofi.
It's understood that the nation now has more than enough doses of vaccines to inoculate the entire population if need be.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will today bring a memo to Cabinet on Ireland's Moderna agreement.
The pharmaceutical company says it will apply for authorisation of its vaccine to be distributed across the US and Europe.
Test results from late-stage studies show a that their vaccine is 94.1% effective with no serious safety concerns.
Moderna's tests involved some 300,000 participants.
The vaccine also proved to be 100% effective against serious cases of Covid-19.
It's expected that vaccinations could be rolled out across Ireland as soon as early January.
Professor Brian MacCraith, who heads up the Government's Covid-19 vaccine task-force, said that while there were whispers that vaccinations could be distributed before the New Year, it was "unlikely".
A recent poll shows that 70% of people in Ireland would be happy to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
Minister Simon Harris stressed that mass vaccination was the most effective and quickest way to end the pandemic, and insisted that there would need to be bipartisan efforts to support vaccinations when they become available to encourage as many people to take them as possible, and build immunity to the virus around the country.
