PFIZER: The change may change the time when everyone over the age of 18 receives an offer, from the end of July to August. Photo: DADO RUVIC / X02714
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Pfizer delivers 400,000 fewer vaccine doses in July than FHI had expected. This means at best a 1-2 week delay for when everyone over the age of 18 has been offered a vaccine.
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It is expected that the Pfizer delivery to Norway in July will be 800,000, Pfizer in Norway confirms to VG.
It will have consequences for the vaccination program, FHI informs VG.
The delivery is 400,000 fewer vaccine doses than is the basis for FHI’s scenarios – in total they had estimated that they would receive 1.2 million doses in July.
Pfizer emphasizes that these are FHI’s estimates and that Pfizer’s deliveries are stable during the period.
– It is very unfortunate that we get a delay. At the same time, we hope that Pfizer will compensate for this and will continue to deliver in accordance with the agreements and that we come to port without it having too negative consequences for when people get the vaccine, says the head of the vaccination program, Geir Bukholm to VG.
– How big a delay will it be?
– We are looking at this now and calculating how much delay there will be, but we assume that it may be a matter of one to two weeks.
FHI’s latest estimate has been that everyone over the age of 18 will receive an offer during the last week of July. Now it could be the first or second week in August.
It is currently unclear why deliveries are smaller in July than expected, but Pfizer in Norway confirms to VG that there are no problems with production.
FHI is now calculating how they can reduce the delay:
– We are looking at how we can compensate so that the effect on the vaccination program is as small as possible, such as extending the interval between the first and second dose back to 12 weeks.
– But 1-2 weeks delay is included change of interval?
— That is correct.
Norway’s most important vaccine
Pfizer is the most important corona vaccine supplier to Norway. The doses from them are therefore quite significant for FHI’s vaccine goals to be achieved.
When Pfizer has reported changes in the number of doses, it has usually been for the better. In April, Norway was informed that it 2 million extra Pfizer doses come to the country.
At the time, Bukholm, director of infection control, said that to the extent that there had been deviations from Pfizer, they had been notified of more doses and earlier deliveries than agreed.
In addition to Pfizer, Norway also uses the Moderna vaccine, but deliveries there have been far more modest. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been scrapped, while Johnson & Johnson is offered in an optional scheme outside FHI’s vaccination program. It was taken from there because the vaccine had similar fatal thrombotic side effects as AstraZeneca.
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