Over 170,000 vaccine doses have arrived in Estonia in total

Altogether over 170,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine have arrived in Estonia, the Health Board is only keeping in storage second doses that are to be administered in the following week.
Director general of the Health Board Üllar Lanno told journalists on Wednesday that over 170,000 vaccine doses have arrived in Estonia so far and the vaccines are immediately shipped out again upon arrival to other health care institutions.
Minister of Health and Labor Tanel Kiik (Center) said over 30,000 new doses have arrived in Estonia this week and the number of total vaccinations administered stood at 120,000 on Tuesday evening.
Lanno said 14,00 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Estonia on Monday (March 1).
16,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Estonia and 16,000 of them were dispatched immediately. Of the 800 doses remaining in storage, in turn, 100 doses were issued immediately and the rest have been booked.
The AstraZeneca vaccines are packaged in sets of 100 doses. This means when 16,800 doses arrive in Estonia, 168 centers will receive vaccines.
The Health Board's stock of Moderna vaccines currently stand and 4,700 doses, and orders have already been placed for 3,100. The rest of the vaccines will be used next week.
The government has been under fire in recent weeks for the slow pace of the coronavirus vaccine role out, which has been hindered by manufacturer supply issues.
Additionally, the Health Board has been accused of keeping too many vaccines in reserve rather than sending them out straight away to be used. Some are assigned for second doses, but many are waiting to be distributed.
On Thursday, the Health Board said it currently has 14,400 doses of the vaccine in stock. There are currently 9,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 700 doses of AstraZeneca and 4,700 doses of Moderna in reserve.
However, it is acknowledged that the pace of vaccination needs to speed up. "The pace of vaccination must increase this week," Kiik said on Wednesday.
In total, 30,840 doses of vaccine arrived in Estonia this week.
In total, 84,175 people have been vaccinated and 37,369 have been vaccinated twice.
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Editor: Helen Wright