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This was announced by the Minister of Health, Bent Høie, when he presented the final results of the vaccination plans in Norway on Friday.
– Since the coronavirus changed our lives in March, we have been waiting for a vaccine. Now it may seem like that day is here soon and there is light at the end of the tunnel, says Health Minister Høie.
It may be more normal for Easter
He believes that Norway is now far ahead of the vaccine queue as a result of close cooperation with the EU and the other European countries.
Now four vaccines are being approved and this may happen before the New Year. In Norway, vaccination is voluntary and free.
– Now we hope to be able to offer the first doses early next year, says Høie.
During the first quarter of 2021, we will be able to receive a total of 2.5 million doses of the three vaccines that have gone the furthest through the approval process: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca. These are two-dose vaccines. That is, they cover 1.25 million people.
– Then we can be in a completely different situation until today than today, says Høie.
He justifies it with the fact that at this time we may have received significant protection from some of the most vulnerable in society.
Expect good access to vaccines during the first half of 2021, and come with good news for next summer:
– Then we can have a more normal summer 2021.
These should take precedence
It emphasizes that the most important thing now is to avoid death and serious illness.
– The government wants to offer vaccination to the entire population. At first, we will receive a limited number of vaccine doses and therefore we must prioritize who will get the offer first.
The Government’s priority list is based on advice from NIPH:
NIPH: These should be vaccinated first
Based on the advice of the National Institute of Public Health, residents of nursing homes and nursing homes and the elderly will be vaccinated in the first instance. It is followed by the elderly over 65 and people aged 18 to 64 with one or more specific diseases that they already have. Old age is the predominant risk factor for severe illness and death from COVID-19. In old age, the incidence of chronic diseases and conditions also increases.
Diseases / Conditions:
- Organ transplant
- Neurological diseases or muscle diseases that reduce the ability to cough or lung function.
- Chronic kidney disease or significant kidney failure
- Chronic liver disease or significant liver failure Immunosuppressive therapy such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or immunosuppressive therapy for autoimmune diseases
- Diabetes
- Chronic lung disease (other than well-regulated asthma)
- Fedme (KMI ≥ 35 kg / m²)
- Hematological cancer last five years
- Other active cancer, ongoing or recently stopped cancer treatment (especially immunosuppressive therapy, radiation therapy to the lungs, or chemotherapy)
- Immunodeficiency, defined by a doctor
- Chronic cardiovascular disease (excluding high blood pressure)
- Race
- Dementia
Kilde: FHI
There are approximately 1.3 million people in the risk group, who are older than 65 or who already have one or more of the serious illnesses. The health personnel in contact with the patient is made up of about 340,000 people.
– If we become infected in a more generalized or uncontrolled way, the order will change so that health personnel arrive first and then go to risk groups. Since the vaccination strategy is dynamic, we will also consider prioritizing health personnel in nursing homes and health personnel who are particularly vulnerable should have priority in areas with high infection. The final order will also depend on up-to-date knowledge of the properties of the vaccines.
He says priorities can be changed both in terms of knowledge about vaccines and the status of infection.
Hope measures can be reduced
However, daily life will not return as soon as vaccination begins, emphasizes the Minister of Health.
Conspiracy theories abound: “Rapid vaccines go a long way”
– We must maintain infection control measures until vaccination is well advanced. Once the risk groups have been vaccinated, we hope that the measures can be reduced. So at Easter we can be in a completely different situation than today. This assumes that the vaccines are approved and that they are produced and distributed as planned by the manufacturers, Høie says.
– Now the day we were waiting for is soon here. But there is still work to be done before we get there, Høie says, adding that municipalities now have a lot of work ahead of them.
Be contacted
People to prioritize will be contacted. According to NIPH, vaccination will begin in nursing homes, before the priority gradually decreases.
– Priority should be given to the elderly, risk groups and health professionals. The reason we recommend it is that the most important thing the vaccine does is protect people. So we know that we have the elderly and people with underlying diseases and we have the highest risk of severe progression and death, these are the ones we should prioritize, says the director of infection control at the National Institute of Public Health, Geir Bukholm.
– Then it can also be the case that we do not receive enough doses of vaccine at the beginning, so that the entire risk group can be prioritized at the same time, he adds.
Therefore, it may be necessary to have even stricter priorities within risk groups.
– This will be done when we have an approved vaccine, he says.
– Since we do not know anything about the spread of infection in vaccines, priority will be given first to the most vulnerable.
Fear of pressure in the vaccine queue
– Challenging
When you learn more about the vaccine, it may be relevant to vaccinate other parts of the population as well, says Bukholm.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health will provide detailed guidelines for the practical implementation of vaccination.
– It can be challenging, says Bukholm.
This is because the vaccines probably need to be given in two doses and therefore need to be organized a little differently than the way the national vaccination program is organized.
The Pfizer vaccine should also be stored at a very low temperature.
– Municipalities must plan that vaccination is carried out properly, he says.
FHI will publish next Monday a manual on how the vaccination will be carried out.
– It will be a somewhat complicated process, he says.
He says it will also take time before a vaccine is offered to everyone recommended to take the vaccine.
Equitable distribution
FHI has proposed that vaccines be distributed evenly among municipalities, but says this may change.
– Based on the current situation, we see no reason for local priorities, says Bukholm.
Audun Hågå from the Norwegian Medicines Agency says they are now working on evaluating four corona vaccines.
– There are probably many who have noticed that the UK uses the vaccine for Pfizer. It is important to emphasize that the anti-drug authorities have not approved it, but the authorities have given an emergency approval, he says.
He says that all European countries are now working on the evaluation of vaccines, and that it should not be at the expense of approval security, it is likely to happen relatively quickly.
– The goal is always for residents to get the protection they need, without compromising safety, says Hågå.
Löfven: – No one should have to give up the vaccine for financial reasons
Keep a close eye on side effects
He says there will still be a lot of things we don’t know when the vaccine is approved, and that the Norwegian Medicines Agency will be open as new experiences are gained.
– So far, most of what appears in the media is based on press releases from manufacturers, and that protection is up to 90 percent. There are a number of things we want answers for now, like the effect on the elderly, he says.
Mild side effects from vaccines have been reported so far, but Hågå says the Norwegian Medicines Agency will monitor the situation closely, as comments come after the start of vaccination.
– We cannot rule out rare side effects. Therefore, the Norwegian Medicines Agency will monitor this closely and will be open to the side effects reported in Norway and other countries, he says.
– It is important that people now have confidence that we are open about what we know and what we do not know about side effects at the time of approval.
