On Thursday, the National Institute of Public Health announced that they will stop vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Norway, and that the pharmaceutical company will deliver smaller doses in the second quarter than had been hoped for. At the same time, Janssen’s vaccine candidate was also approved for use in Norway.
All of this will affect vaccine progress in Norway, but infection control director Geir Bukholm states that they do not yet know how much.
– We must return to calculations of what this will mean for the actual progress. In the first round, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on pause, in addition to the fact that we have been notified of somewhat reduced deliveries from them, which means that this break does not have as great an effect as it could have had, Bukholm tells Dagbladet and continues:
– At the same time, I must say that the AstraZeneca vaccine is an important vaccine by and large scenarios our, so it is important to make the best use of those vaccines.
view more
–
Vaccine break
On Thursday morning, the Danish authorities stated that they had stopped vaccinating with the AstraZeneca vaccine on suspicion that it could be linked to serious cases of blood clots. At present, no connection has been found, but the health authorities need time to investigate this further.
– It will obviously lead to the vaccination taking longer, but how much longer depends on how long this break needs to be. And there are many uncertainties in the vaccination progress because we do not know very well who can deliver what, and which new vaccines can be approved, says chief physician Are Berg at FHI to Dagbladet.
He says that the doses can be set fairly quickly, if the investigations result in Norway choosing to use the vaccine further.
– If we can first examine this carefully, and can conclude that we think it is right to proceed with the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, then we will have these doses in stock and will be able to set them fairly quickly afterwards.
view more
–
Approved
On Thursday, it was also announced that Janssen’s coronary vaccine candidate is approved for use in the EU and Norway. Bukholm says that Norway has an agreement for the delivery of 900,000 doses during April, May and June, but that it is not yet known how many doses arrive in Norway in the different months.
– We still do not have specific dates for deliveries. We assume that Janssen will deliver what they have promised during the second quarter, ie from April to June. But we do not know how many doses we get in April, May or June. We have no reason to believe that we will not be able to meet the total delivery during the second quarter, says Bukholm and continues:
– We have a good collaboration with Janssen, and we have weekly communication with them. The agreement between Janssen with the various European countries goes primarily through the EU system, and further distribution to the individual countries is also agreed.
