Up to ten thousand doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine could arrive in Ireland before the end of the year.

But the head of the government's vaccine taskforce says no details have been confirmed yet and discussions with the company are ongoing.

Health Minister Stephen Donnolly has said a low-level rollout could start before the new year if European regulators approve the Pfizer jab next week.

Professor Brian McCraith, who leads the vaccine task force, says small shipments could arrive here in the next few weeks:

"In terms of quarterly allocations, we expect to be dealing with a number of hundreds of thousands of those ... but I'm being very careful because these haven't been confirmed."

Rollout plan

The Government this week unveiled its vaccine strategy detailing how it will be secured, transported, stored and ultimately delivered.

Vaccines will be initially administered to residential care home staff and residents, as well as frontline health workers.

That will be extended as 2021 continues, eventually involving GPs, pharmacists and mass vaccination sites.

The vaccination of nursing home residents against COVID-19 could also be completed by mid to late February, according to modelling being done by the government's high-level task force on vaccine rollout.

However, it's only an estimate and depends on when supplies of the various jabs become available.

Nursing homes are top of the priority list when doses arrive here.

Professor McCraith, says there's no certainty over when the 78 thousand residents and staff will be vaccinated by:

"If you look at those numbers and you look at the initial cohort of vaccinators, you can start to think that that cohort might complete their vaccinations by mid to late February for example.

"Every time we mention something like that it becomes a fact, it's not. These are models and scenarios that we're working through under various rates of arrivals, under various rates of timing and approvals and so on."

Photo by Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS/Sipa USA