Drug company Pfizer has said a temporary reduction to deliveries of its coronavirus vaccine in Europe will only be limited to one week.
It followed an earlier statement that said there would be a 'temporary impact' to shipments in late January and early February while the company worked to scale-up its production facility in Belgium.
The agency said the pharmaceutical company will be able to scale up production from 1.3 billion doses to 2 billion doses per year.
However in a statement released later on Friday, it said that it will be back to its original schedule of deliveries on the week of January 25th.
It said this will see "increased delivery beginning week of February 15th, resulting in our ability to deliver the fully committed quantity of vaccine doses in the first quarter and significantly more in the second quarter."
The company said it will also inform the European Commission, EU member states and other countries impacted by the changes about the updated delivery schedules.
Speaking in Dublin earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he'd today been told that Pfizer 'may be slowing down' its supply of the vaccine.
However, he said it was unclear what the impact for Ireland would be.
It comes as a second vaccine - from Moderna - is set to start being administered in Ireland from this weekend.
Great to hear confirmation from @CcoHse that 3 mass vaccination clinics are being stood up tomorrow in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise by @AmbulanceNAS to vaccinate GP teams from across the country using our first supply of the Moderna vaccine. 1/2
— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) January 15, 2021
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said mass vaccination centres will be set up in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise to vaccinate 'GP teams from across the country' with the Moderna jab.
Meanwhile, the HSE has today confirmed that people who receive the first dose of their coronavirus vaccine from Monday will wait an extra week for their second dose.
It comes as they work to maximise available supplies to vaccinate as many people as possible.
Additional reporting: Jack Quann
Article updated: 21.20
