The chair of Ireland’s Covid Vaccination Task Force has said inoculations against the killer disease will start before the end of the year, ‘all going well’. Professor Brian MacCraith said he is confident ‘we should be ready’ to start administering the first 5,000 doses provided approval is given by the European Medicines Agency and certain safety guidelines are met. EMA approval may come as early as tomorrow. ‘All going well in terms of approval from the EMA and contingent on the arrival of vaccines – but we’re very hopeful that will happen soon,’ Prof. MacCraith said. ‘Every effort will be made to commence the programme this side of New Year’s Day. We can’t at this stage be more specific than that. Everything will be driven by safety matters and following what is laid out in the documentation.