Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

VACCINE

Norway secures 3.6 million additional Covid-19 vaccine doses

Norway has secured an additional 3.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from producer Pfizer/BioNTech.

Published: 8 January 2021 17:16 CET
Norway secures 3.6 million additional Covid-19 vaccine doses
Photo: AFP

In total, Norway now has arrangements in place to receive 7.2 million doses of the vaccine. The country's population is around 5.3 million (including children, who will not be offered the vaccine).

As a vaccination requires two doses, the supplies so far secured by Norway would enable it to offer 3.6 million vaccinations.

Vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrøm confirmed to VG on Friday the agreement for supply of the new doses. It comes after the EU reached agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech over the supply of new doses.

Data published earlier this week showed Norway to have vaccinated around 0.2 percent of its population so far. The first Covid-19 vaccinations in Norway took place on December 27th.

The EU's latest agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech, announced Friday, puts in place the purchase of a further 300 million doses of vaccines for countries participating in the union's procurement programme. Norway is included in this.

The EU Commission also approved the a second vaccine, produced by company Moderna, earlier this week, while a third, the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine, could be approved by the end of January.

READ ALSO: EU medicines agency gives green light to second Covid-19 vaccine

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.” 

READ ALSO: 

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.

SHOW COMMENTS