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VACCINE

When will Norway receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

On Thursday the Johnson & Johnson vaccine neared approval for use in Norway, but when will Norway receive the 900,000 doses it has ordered?

Published: 11 March 2021 17:27 CET
When will Norway receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
Photo: SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

The European Medicines Agency on Thursday recommended approving Johnson & Johnson’s single dose Covid vaccine after a successful trial, paving the way for its use in Norway.

Johnson & Johnson has committed to delivering 200 million doses of the single dose Janssens vaccine. They have said that this will begin in the second quarter, the period between April and June.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) hopes to receive the first doses of the vaccine as early as April and has scheduled to deliver 300,000 doses each in April, May and June.

But news agency Reuters reported on Tuesday that Johnson & Johnson told the European Commission that it could be difficult for the company to deliver the first batch of 55 million vaccines to Europe by the end of June.

Production of the vaccine takes place in the EU and the USA.

Meanwhile, NIPH does not have any confirmed dates or delivery numbers for the first shipment, information they did have available for first shipments of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines according to a report by newspaper VG.

“We have had contact with Johnson & Johnson, most recently this morning. They still cannot tell us anything about the deliveries,” the director of infection prevention and control at NIPH, Geir Bukholm, told VG.

If the doses do not arrive by April, then the possibility of NIPH’s best case scenario, in which everyone over the age of 18 is vaccinated by the end of June, hangs in the balance.

“It will have significant consequences for the progress of the vaccination program. It is a significant delivery” Bukholm told VG.

NIPH told the newspaper it is making alternate arrangements should they it not receive the vaccine by the end of April.

“We are familiar with reports in the media about uncertainty related to the deliveries from Johnson & Johnson. Due to this uncertainty NIPH operates with two different scenarios for the progress of the vaccination program: a sober scenario that does not include the doses from Johnson & Johnson and an optimistic scenario where the company is fully capable of delivery from April.”

Via its Norwegian press office, Johnson&Johnson told VG in a written statement that it was “working with regulatory authorities and stands by the obligation to deliver 200 million doses of Janssens Covid-19 vaccine in 2021, beginning in the second quarter”.

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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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