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Several drug companies are expected to get approval for their covid-19 vaccines in December and January. Once approval is obtained, deliveries will begin and both the Swedish Public Health Agency and Sweden’s National Vaccine Coordinator Richard Bergström made it clear that the regions must be ready to vaccinate after the New Year.
This week he left The Swedish Public Health Agency announced how many doses of vaccines the regions can expect in January and February. The distribution is based on delivery forecasts from pharmaceutical companies and the proportion of the population in the regions that is 70 years of age or older.
The Stockholm region receives the largest deliveries, with a total of 680,700 doses during the first two months of the year. It is followed by the Västra Götaland region with 607,900 doses and the Skåne region with 490,200. In total, around 3.7 million doses will be distributed in Sweden during the period. The number is preliminary and depends on when the vaccine is approved and the manufacturers’ ability to produce and administer the doses.
The Pfizer vaccine is expected to be delivered from week 2 and Moderns thereafter. The first doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine are expected to arrive in Sweden in early February, the Swedish Public Health Agency writes in the mail to the regions.
All vaccines there approval should be given close in time in two doses. Given the uncertainty in deliveries, the Stockholm region has accounted for delays and will therefore save 1,500 doses from the first delivery. The goal is to ensure that everyone who has started a vaccine also receives their second dose.
The Jönköping region describes a similar approach.
– The first doses are so many that they will probably be sufficient for the most fragile group. Then we save a couple of doses to ensure they get a second dose as well, says David Edenvik, an assistant infection control physician in the region.
But not all regions reason in the same way. In Gotland, 4,600 doses are expected to be delivered in January, and the region plans to vaccinate the same number of people.
“Of course, there is uncertainty in planning, but we perceive that the Swedish Public Health Agency has told us not to save on vaccines. We should be able to be sure that there will be new deliveries, “writes the region’s vaccine coordinator, Christine Senter, in an email to DN.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the plan may change if the region receives indications that deliveries are not working as expected.
Several of the regions are raising that there are great challenges with the next vaccination campaign. It’s as much about making logistics work as it is about making vaccines infection-free.
– A big challenge is logistics, making the delivery flow work. There are two doses that each patient must receive, while there are several different types of vaccines that must be stored in different ways. It’s a puzzle to be solved, says David Edenvik.
The highest priority in vaccination are people over 70 years of age, people in the risk group and employees in health and care. According to the Swedish Public Health Agency, it is about 2.6 million people.
When vaccinations have started, city epidemiologist Anders Tegnell hopes that mortality in Sweden will decrease.
– It should reduce the death rate relatively quickly if the vaccine works as well as claimed in that group. But before we have an effect on society, it will probably take several more months. Maybe sometime next summer if everything works optimally, he says in an interview with DN.
Read more:
55,000 stockholmers can be vaccinated in January
Just over 100,000 doses of vaccines for the VG region in January
