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COVID-19

Norway urges Olympics to be postponed until coronavirus crisis over

The Norwegian Olympic Committee (NOC) said on Saturday they had asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo until the new coronavirus pandemic was under control.

Published: 21 March 2020 15:01 CET
Norway urges Olympics to be postponed until coronavirus crisis over
An employee works as the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cauldron is displayed before it is lit with the Olympic flame outside Sendai railway station, Miyagi prefecture on March 21, 2020, after arriving from Greec

In a letter sent to the IOC on Friday, the Norwegian sports body said it was “concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health situation both nationally and internationally.”

“Our clear recommendation is that the Olympic Games in Tokyo shall not take place before the COVID-19 situation is under firm control on a global scale,” the letter continued.

The NOC also pointed out that one of the measures undertaken in order to curb the spread of the virus in Norway was a ban on organised sports activities, which had created “a very challenging time for the sports movement in Norway”.

Speaking to AFP, communications advisor to the NOC Sofie Olsen said: “We want to emphasise that the IOC make a decision sooner than later so that everyone can have a fair chance of preparing.”

As of Friday, 258,930 cases of the new coronavirus had been confirmed with 11,129 deaths, across 163 countries and territories.

The Olympics are increasingly in doubt as the pandemic, which emerged in China last year but has now spread around the world, shows no sign of slowing down.

American swim federation USA Swimming asked for the games to be postponed on Friday and was joined by its French counterpart on Saturday.

However, IOC President Thomas Bach insisted this week it was “premature” to consider postponing the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled to start on July 24.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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