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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 expected. At the same time, Janssen’s candidate vaccine was also approved for use in Norway.
All of this will affect the progress of the vaccine in Norway, but infection control director Geir Bukholm says they don’t know how much yet.
– We must go back to the calculations of what this will mean for real progress. In the first round, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on hold, plus we have been notified of somewhat reduced deliveries of them, which means that this breakdown does not have as great an effect as it could have, Bukholm tells Dagbladet and continues:
– At the same time, I must say that the AstraZeneca vaccine is an important vaccine in our large scenario map, so it is important to use those vaccines as well as possible.
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 severe cases of blood clots. Currently, no connection has been found, but health authorities need time to investigate further.
– Obviously, it will make the vaccination take longer, but how much longer will depend on the length of this pause. And there are a lot of uncertainties in the progress of vaccination because we don’t really know who can administer what and what new vaccines can be approved, says chief physician Are Berg at FHI to Dagbladet.
He says dosages can be set fairly quickly, if investigations result in Norway opting to use the vaccine more.
– If we can first examine this carefully and we can conclude that we believe it is correct to proceed with the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, then we will have these doses in stock and can put them out fairly quickly afterwards.
Approved
On Thursday, it was also announced that Janssen’s coronary vaccine candidate is approved for use in the EU and Norway. Bukholm says 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 on its promise during the second quarter, that is, from April to June. But we don’t know how many doses we receive in April, May or June. We have no reason to believe that we will not be able to meet full 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 is mainly through the EU system, and further distribution to individual countries is also agreed.
Delivery time
On Thursday afternoon, section leader Knut Jønsrud in vaccine supply at FHI told Dagbladet that, in theory, doses can go as far as June.
At the same time, Jønsrud stressed that FHI has no reason to believe that the doses will arrive as late as the end of the second quarter, but said that they have not received any guarantees that they will arrive earlier.
Janssen has committed to deliver to the EU, and thus to Norway, for a longer period. What they have not done is say how many doses arrive at a time and when. Otherwise, we have a good dialogue with Janssen and we have weekly meetings to prepare for the launch of the vaccine, he said.
FHI does not know when the delivery time will be ready.
– One challenge with all the upcoming vaccine deliveries that have not yet been approved is that they are happy to allocate doses by quarter. We don’t know if they come monthly, for example, Jønsrud said.
Satisfied
Chief Physician Sara Viksmoen Watle is pleased that Janssen has been approved for use in Norway.
– It is great that we have now received another vaccine that turns out to provide very good protection against disease. We need it now that we have a vaccine shortage, Viksmoen Watle tells Dagbladet, continuing:
– The vaccines are given in a single dose. It is clear that it is much easier when there is one dose and you don’t have to go back for the other dose. The vaccine also shows very good protection after a dose, so it is very positive.
