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VACCINES

Here are the six Covid-19 vaccines you’re most likely to get in Sweden

There are currently 202 Covid-19 vaccines under development. Here are the six most likely to be used in Sweden.

Published: 14 November 2020 16:49 CET
Here are the six Covid-19 vaccines you're most likely to get in Sweden
Someone receiving the Pfizer vaccine as part of the trials earlier this year. Photo: AP/TT
It's still up in the air which of the most prominent vaccines under development will make it to market, but the World Health Organisation believes that the first people should start to get vaccinated at the start of, or at least the first half of 2021. 
 
There are currently 202 vaccine candidates under development across the world, 47 of which are currently undergoing clinical tests on people, and ten of which have reached the third and last phase of testing. 
 
It's up to the European Commission to decide which of the successful candidates will be available in Sweden. Once a vaccine wins approval from the European Medicines Agency, the Commission negotiates deals on behalf of EU member states. 
 
 
So far these are the vaccine candidates for which deals have been signed: 
 
Astra Zeneca
 
The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant Astra Zeneca has signed a deal to supply 300m vaccine doses to the EU, with an option for a further 100m doses. Around six million of these are ear-marked for Sweden, according to the Swedish government. 
 
At the start of November, Astra Zeneca's chief executive Pascal Soriot told DN that vaccination could begin as early as this January, or even by the end of December. 
 
Svensk-brittiska bolaget Astra Zeneca har tecknat ett avtal om 300 miljoner vaccindoser med EU, med en option på ytterligare 100 miljoner. Runt 6 miljoner av dem ska hamna i Sverige enligt regeringen.
 
The Vaccine, which has been developed at Oxford University, with Astra Zeneca's backing, is a so-called vector-based vaccine, which uses an ordinary cold virus to enter cells. In the cold virus's genetic material there is a sequence for a protein taken from coronavirus which then triggers the immune defence system. 
 
The vaccine is currently undergoing third phase testing. 
 
Janssen Pharmaceutica 
 
The commission signed an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica for 200m doses, with an option for a further 200m doses, which should give Sweden access to around 4.5m doses. 
 
This vaccine is currently also undergoing third phase tests and should be ready by the start of 2021, according to a press release from Johnson & Johnson from September. 
 
 
Sanofi-GSK
 
In September the European Commission signed a contract  with Sanofi-GSK for 300m doses. The deal is an opt in-agreement, which Sweden does not yet need to take a decision on. 
 
This vaccine is currently between stage one and stage two testing, with phase three scheduled for the end of the year. 
 
If the tests are successful, the vaccine is expected to be available in the second half of next year, according to the Commission. 
 
Pfizer-Biontech
 
The US pharma company Pfizer and Germany's Biontech on Monday presented preliminary results from phase three testing, with indicates that the vaccine in 90 percent effective at generating immunity to Covid-19. 
 
The protection begins seven days after the second of two doses and 28 days after the first. 
 
The European Commission on Tuesday struck a deal to buy 200m doses fo the vaccine with the option of buying a further 100m. Sweden and other EU member states can now decide if they want to receive some of the doses. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called the vaccine “the most promising vaccine yet”. 
 
Politicians in Europe have said they expect to be able to start administering the vaccine early in 2021.
 
Moderna
 
In August the Commission signed a preliminary deal with the US pharma company Moderna to buy 80m doses, with the option of buying 80m more.
 
The vaccine is currently in phase three testing. Like those of Pfizer and Biontech, the vaccine uses an mRNA molecule to deliver the coronavirus material. 
 
In a conventional vaccine, parts of the virus are introduced to the body's immune defence system, so it can learn to recognise and fight the virus. 
 
With mRNA vaccines, instead a molecule of mRNA is introduced, which instructs the body to itself make the proteins which the immune system will then learn to react to. 
 
Curevac
 
The Commission has signed a preliminary agreement with the German pharmaceutical company Curevac to buy 225m doses. The vaccine is currently in phase two of development .
 

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HEALTH

Italy to step up test-and-trace and sequencing as concern grows about Delta virus variant

The Italian health ministry on Friday told local authorities to increase their coronavirus variant sequencing and tracing efforts, as new data confirmed that the Delta strain is spreading in Italy.

Published: 25 June 2021 19:15 CEST
Updated: 27 June 2021 10:34 CEST
Italy to step up test-and-trace and sequencing as concern grows about Delta virus variant
Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

The ministry sent out the instruction in a circular after the Higher Health Institute (ISS) released new figures on Friday showing that the number of infections in Italy caused by the Delta and Kappa variants have increased by 16.8 percent in June.

“From our epidemiological surveillance, a rapidly evolving picture emerges that confirms that also in our country, as in the rest of Europe, the Delta variant of the virus is becoming prevalent,” said Anna Teresa Palamara, director of ISS’s infectious diseases department.

READ ALSO: Italian health experts warn about Delta variant as vaccine progress slows

According to ISS data published on Friday, the SARS-CoV-2 variant prevalent in Italy was found to be the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), responsible for 74.9 of cases. This is now also the most prevalent globally.

Cases associated with Kappa and Delta variants (B.1.617.1/2) “are few overall in January to June”, the ISS report added. But it stated that the frequency and spread of these reports has “rapidly” increased across the country.

The new ISS figure  still lower than those from independent analysis of data from the virus-variant tracking database Gisaid, which estimated on Thursday that Delta now accounts for as much as 32 percent of recently confirmed new cases.

Several regions have already reported clusters of the Delta variant, though the amount of test result sequencing and analysis carried out by local health authorities in Italy varies and is often low.

Each region currently volunteers to do a certain number genetic sequencing of positive swabs, which means that Italy has less data available about the spread of variants than countries where sequencing is more widespread and systematic, such as the UK or Denmark.

The region of Puglia on Friday confirmed it would begin sending 60 test results per week for further analysis following the health ministry’s instruction.

Italian authorities had largely dismissed the risks posed by Delta in Italy until recently, describing its presence as “rare” in the country in the official data monitoring report released on June 11th.

Health officials had said at the end of May that they believed vaccinations would be enough to mitigate the risks.

But Italy’s government is now re-evaluating its approach following criticism of its response so far in a report published on Thursday by independent health watchdog GIMBE.

“A ‘wait-and-see’ strategy on managing the Delta variant is unacceptable,” wrote GIMBE head Dr. Nino Cartabellotta.

MAP: Where is the Delta variant spreading in Italy?

Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

The report described Italy’s current levels of full vaccination coverage as “worrying” considering “the lower effectiveness of a single dose against this variant “.

At the moment, just over a quarter of the Italian population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to 46% in the United Kingdom.

The report pointed out that some 2.5 million people aged over 60 in Italy have not yet received the first dose of a vaccine.

The foundation urged the government to “properly implement” measures recommended by the ECDC in its report published earlier this week: “enhance sequencing and contact tracing, implement screening strategies for those arriving from abroad, and accelerate the administration of the second dose in over 60s”.

Cartabellotta said: “You can’t control the Covid pandemic only with vaccines, masks and distancing. Today the Delta variant requires tracing and sequencing”.

Amid rising concern about the impact of the variant, which is thought to increase the risk of hospitalisation, Italian health authorities on Monday imposed new travel restrictions on arrivals from the UK – almost a month after other EU countries including France and Germany did the same.

Despite concerns about the spread of Delta, Italian health authorities on Friday also confirmed that all regions of Italy would be allowed to ease the health measures further from Monday, June 28th, as the number of infections recorded remained low this week.

READ ALSO: Italy to drop outdoor mask-wearing rule from June 28th

The last region still classed as a ‘yellow’ zone, Valle d’Aosta, will join the rest of the country in the low-risk ‘white’ tier, meaning most rules can be relaxed.

“With the decree I just signed, all of Italy will be ‘white’ starting from Monday. It is an encouraging result, but we still need caution and prudence,” Speranza
wrote on Facebook.

Referring to the spread of more transmissible variants of the coronavirus, the minister added: “the battle has not yet been won.”

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