Lithuanian ministry to decide soon on AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 55 2021-02-01 BNS/TBT Staff
VILNIUS – The Lithuanian Health Ministry is planning to decide soon whether to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 55 years. The decision will be made early this week, Aiste Suksta, spokeswoman for the health minister, told BNS on Monday.
The European Medicines Agency last week approved AstraZeneca s vaccine for use in adult citizens of EU member countries.
The agency said in its statement that there are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years old) to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group .
Baltic and Nordic countries urge Brussels for action on Pfizer vaccine delays
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The European Commission, Brussels / Shutterstock
On Friday, Lithuania and other Baltic and Nordic countries called on the European Commission to demand an explanation from BioNTech and Pfizer over coronavirus vaccine delivery delays. We request you to urgently engage with BioNTech-Pfizer to demand a public explanation of the situation and to stress the need to ensure stability and transparency of timely deliveries, the six countries said in a letter seen by BNS. National governments cannot plan for successful vaccination without predictability of the vaccine delivery schedules, they said.
In the letter to the European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakidou, ministers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Sweden expressed severe concern that delivery delays may affect the sustainability and credibility of the vaccination process.
The EU will be getting fewer BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine doses than planned in the coming weeks, as Pfizer tries to amp up its production capacity. European politicians are already under fire over slow inoculation drives.