STOCKHOLM, February 6 (Xinhua) – The first shipment of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Sweden, the news agency TT reported on Saturday.
Christina Malmberg Hagerstrand, the English-Swedish pharmaceutical company’s director of the company’s external communication for the Nordic and Baltic countries, told TT that it was the first batch of several planned for the coming months. It arrived in Sweden on Saturday morning, two days before the schedule. She did not reveal how many doses were in the broadcast.
The country of origin and the means of transport used for the broadcast were confidential, the news agency reported.
Several countries have expressed concern about the vaccine’s effect among the elderly since it was approved by the European Medicines Agency on 29 January. Sweden is one of these and the country’s public health authority has recently recommended that it not be used to inoculate people aged 65 years. or above. This recommendation can be withdrawn, subject to proof that the vaccine also protects the elderly.
The broadcast arrived when Sweden was preparing for phase 2 of its vaccination program. The first to receive the vaccine belonged to the oldest population. Those who are 65 years or older will now be offered a chance to receive protection against COVID-19. Younger individuals with certain medical conditions, e.g. those who need dialysis or have undergone a transplant are also included, which means that AstraZeneca’s vaccine can be used to inoculate them.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was the third to be approved in Europe, after Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were given the green light in late December and early January.
As the world struggles to curb the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with already approved coronavirus vaccines.
At the same time, 238 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide – 63 of them in clinical trials – in countries such as Germany, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to information published by the World Health Organization on 2 February.
Source: sn.dk