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VACCINE

Five of Sweden’s regions open Covid-19 vaccine booking to all over-18s

Västra Götaland will open up Covid-19 vaccination booking to all over-18s on Thursday, a full month ahead of schedule, making it one of five Swedish regions offering the vaccine to all adults. At the same time, Stockholm and Skåne have opened up to more young adults.

Five of Sweden's regions open Covid-19 vaccine booking to all over-18s
The Covid-19 vaccine is becoming available to people in lower and lower age groups. Photo: Erik Mårtensson / TT

Currently Norrbotten, Jönköping, Sörmland, and Västernorrland are offering appointments for Covid-19 vaccines to all adults over the age of 18, with several other regions following suit in the next few days. 

While age groups and availability differ across the regions, most regional health departments are asking that people don’t travel to different regions in order to access the vaccine earlier.

From later today, booking will also open to all over-18s in Västra Götaland. This is a month ahead of schedule, with the plans being changed due to decrease in booking numbers and to make the process simpler for residents and vaccine providers.

Other regions are slowly opening up appointments to younger age groups, with the timing dependent on availability of vaccines and the take-up rate among older age groups. 

Vaccination booking was set to open to everyone over 18 in Halland from July 2nd and in Örebro from July 12th, at the time of publication.

The two other major city regions, Stockholm and Skåne, have also extended the age groups eligible for booking although the youngest adults cannot yet book a time. In Stockholm, vaccination opened on Tuesday to people born in 1991 or earlier, and in Skåne booking will open to those born in 1996 or earlier as of Wednesday evening.

The Skåne region said in a statement: “The take-up of vaccinations in the 25-29 age group will determine whether we can release vaccine slots to all aged over 18 next week.” 

People over 18 and in a Covid-19 risk group (including those with weakened immune systems, diabetes, or receiving disability support, and other conditions) can already get the vaccine in all regions across the country. 

The vaccine is free and voluntary. You are eligible to get a free vaccine if you live here, even if you do not have a Swedish personnummer, but you might need to call your doctors’ office directly in that case.  

Currently, anyone aged 18 and over in Norrbotten can make an appointment for vaccination. 

  • To book, either log in via 1177.se and book a time at a doctor’s office or vaccination centre, or call 010-452 63 03 on weekdays between 9-4pm. If you call, you will be put in a queue and called back, which may take several days due to the high call volume.

Sörmland is offering the Covid-19 vaccine to all people who are 18 years or older. 

  • You can book by logging into 1177.se, which requires a digital ID, or by calling 016-10 40 44 on weekdays between 8-5pm. You can find more information here

The vaccination is now available to everyone over 18 in Västernorrland.

  • You need to book a slot directly with the doctor’s office; contact details are available from 1177. You can also use the app, MittVaccin. BankID is not required, but you do need a personnummer to book online. You can call 0611-804 00 for assistance, which is open on weekdays from 8-4pm and weekends from 10-4pm. 

Jönköping opened to over-18s on Wednesday:

  • People who are eligible for the vaccination can book via 1177.se or the region’s health site, or directly via the doctor’s offices offering vaccinations, which you can find here. You do not need a digital ID to do this, but if you can’t book online you should ring the doctor’s office directly.

Västra Götaland has just opened up booking to all adults aged over 18.  

  • The region advises people who are eligible to book directly at your doctor’s office, preferably via 1177.se, which has contact details for doctor’s offices. 

The Public Health Agency is aiming to have all adults offered at least the first dose of the vaccine by mid-September. Then the roll out is set to begin for those between 16 and 18. 

This information was correct to the best of our knowledge on June 30th.

Member comments

  1. I find it strange that the authorities do no keep a record of when they gave you the first Vaccination . The inject you with some new Drug , and can not be bothered to record the time they did this and ´when I pressed them they told me it was uo to me to remember when I had the Jab . It’s not even stamped on the Card they give you , I had to resort to asking a friend who told me I had written about it on my Facebook on so and so a day . Great , Sweden needs to take this more seriously .

    1. I find it hard to believe your vaccine was not recorded.
      I booked mine online via 1177.se got a time via sms and when I turned up had to show my ID and it was recorded on the database and on a card. Within minutes of the first injection I got a date for the second which was also recorded on the database and on the card they gave me. When I went to see my doctor a week later he could also see I had both jabs.

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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.

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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