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– What we know is that deliveries will be reduced, they will not fall but will be reduced, spread evenly throughout Europe, for more than a week. It will take a few weeks in advance, says Joachim Henriksen, press contact at Pfizer Norway for NRK.
By the end of February, the production capacity will have increased and will exceed the current level, according to Henriksen.
– So already in March we are in the process of catching up, that we deliver more than estimated today. And from the second quarter, this is good news for Norway. So the pace has increased. We don’t buy more vaccines, but we get what we ask for faster. That effect is especially felt from April, he says.
– But does that mean that in January and February we will receive fewer doses than expected?
– Yes, in the coming weeks there will be fewer doses than expected, says Henriksen.
Almost 40,000 fewer doses
Pfizer delivers the vaccine with which Norway has begun to vaccinate the population.
– For Norway, this means in the first instance that we received 7,800 fewer doses in week three than previously reported by Pfizer, says FHI’s director of infection control, Geir Bukholm.
If Norway receives 7,800 fewer doses in the next five weeks until the end of February, that means 39,000 fewer doses than FHI expected.
The reduction is due to an improvement in Pfizer’s production capacity. In a statement, the company writes that this is necessary to “meet the delivery target of 2 billion doses of vaccines by 2021.”
– We must modify the process and facilities that will require further approvals. Although this will temporarily affect shipments, it will also lead to a significant increase in vaccine doses for patients towards the end of February and March, the company writes.
Recovers from emergency stock
The National Institute of Public Health received the message this morning. According to the plan, Norway was to receive 43,875 doses in week 3, but now delivery has been reduced to 36,075, FHI says in a press release.
FHI has already established an emergency stockpile of vaccine doses in case the unexpected happens. Therefore, doses will be removed from this warehouse in the coming weeks to cover delivery problems.
FHI has 100,000 doses in the emergency stock, but on Thursday they decided to remove 40,000 of these to deliver more doses to the municipalities.
It is unclear how long it will be before Pfizer reaches full production capacity again. When that happens, according to the company, they will be able to go from producing 1.3 billion to 2 billion doses a year.
Pfizer tells Reuters they want a significant increase in production in late February or early March.
The rest of Europe will also be affected by delivery problems until further notice.
First set of Modern doses
On Friday, the first dose of Moderna’s vaccine was administered at Grünerløkka in Oslo.
The company’s first delivery is 3,600 doses. Like Pfizer, Moderna’s vaccine must be given in two doses. Thus, the first installment has to vaccinate 1800 people.
Norway is expected to receive a total of 67,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine during January and February.
