Norway receives over 1 million more coronavirus vaccine doses
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The government has entered into an agreement to secure 1,000,800 extra coronavirus vaccine doses for Norway. The increase means that the entire population over the age of 18 will be offered two doses within week 36.
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Go to the home page“This is great news. The increase means that the population will be fully vaccinated two to three weeks earlier. We see it as a major advantage that the population has the highest possible protection to avoid a possible increase in infection this autumn,” says Geir Bukholm, Assistant Director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Bukholm says that this large increase in coronavirus vaccines means that the municipalities themselves can choose to prioritise who is offered vaccination first. For dose 2, the principle is that those who have waited the longest should receive an offer first.
Distribution of vaccine doses
The new coronavirus vaccine doses will be distributed to the municipalities in weeks 34 and 35 together with the doses that are already planned. This means that the municipalities will receive a total of over 1 million doses in week 34 and over 600,000 doses in week 35. This includes doses from BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna.
Combination of different coronavirus vaccines
Since the increase in coronavirus vaccine doses is with Spikevax from Moderna, many municipalities that have not received Spikevax before will receive it now. Several of those who received Comirnaty (BioNTech / Pfizer) for their first dose will now receive Spikevax as their second dose.
“The coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are equivalent and it is possible to combine the two vaccines for the first and second dose. The vaccines have been developed according to the same method and are very good vaccines with regards to both efficacy and safety,” explains Bukholm.
The Moderna vaccine gives as good protection as other coronavirus vaccines and in some reports has shown even greater protection against the Delta variant.
When combining two different mRNA vaccines, NIPH recommends a minimum interval of 4 weeks between doses.