A new delivery of half a million vaccine doses is expected to arrive in Sweden this week. During March, a total of 1.4 million doses are planned to be delivered, and the respective figure for April is 3.3 million to 3.4 million doses.
STOCKHOLM, March 10 (Xinhua) – Sweden has already administered one million COVID-19 vaccine doses, said Minister of Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren here on Wednesday, almost a year to the day when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic.
“By the end of today, Sweden will have carried out one million vaccinations against COVID-19,” Hallengren told reporters.
“There is no doubt that (the vaccines) have had an effect. The number of cases has decreased dramatically in nursing homes, where over 90 percent of residents have received at least one dose of vaccine,” said Hallengren, presenting a graph describing the spread of infections.
During the first week of 2021, almost 800 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed among nursing homes. In recent weeks, there have been almost no new cases, while the number of infections has increased among the general public.
Marie Morell, head of the care department for Sweden’s local authorities and regions, said that the country’s health system has the capacity to administer 1.2 million vaccine doses per week, provided that vaccines are available. The delivery problems that originally destroyed the vaccine expansion are expected to be addressed, she said.
A new delivery of half a million vaccine doses is expected to arrive in Sweden this week. During March, a total of 1.4 million doses are planned to be delivered, and the respective figure for April is 3.3 million to 3.4 million doses.
During the first six months of this year, Sweden has registered for 15 million vaccine doses. During the second half of 2021, this will increase to 30 million.
At the press conference, the government also presented a plan to increase the budget for vaccine purchases from SEK 4.5 billion (US $ 530 million) to SEK 11 billion.
On Wednesday, 13,088 people had been confirmed dead from coronavirus in Sweden since the pandemic started. That was 46 more than on Tuesday. The number of reported infections had increased by almost 6,000 to 702,000.
As the world struggles to curb pandemics, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with already approved coronavirus vaccines.
At the same time, 263 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide – 81 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 March 9 (US $ = 8.55)
Source: sn.dk