A staff member handles AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines stored at the Hovedstaden Region Vaccine Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, on February 11, 2021. Ritzau Scanpix / Liselotte Sabroe via REUTERS
Denmark said on Thursday it had not yet decided what to do with AstraZeneca’s remaining COVID-19 vaccines (AZN.L) after a senior World Health Organization figure suggested the Nordic country would share them with other nations.
This week, Denmark became the first country to stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine as European officials investigate reports of rare blood clots combined with a low platelet count that occurred in Europe and Britain. Read more
The decision has sparked debate in Denmark over what to do with vaccines.
Opposition parties argue that the authorities should still make the shot available to Danes willing to take it. The government has asked health authorities to examine this option.
Denmark currently has just over 200,000 vaccines, but will receive 3.5 million according to previous agreements, the State Serum Institute told Reuters.
“The government has not yet decided what to do with the vaccines purchased AstraZeneca,” the Danish Ministry of Health said in an email to Reuters.
The Norwegian government said on Thursday that it will take longer to assess whether use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is resumed or stopped altogether. Read more
The WHO, which along with Britain and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) continues to recommend shooting AstraZeneca as the benefits outweigh the risks, has been pressuring countries not to hoard vaccines they are not using.
World Bank President David Malpass on Thursday called on countries to bring their “excessive” doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low-income countries.
To date, most vaccines distributed worldwide have been targeted at richer countries.
“I understand that Denmark’s foreign ministry is ready for, or is already looking at options for, sharing AstraZeneca vaccines with other countries,” Hans Kluge, WHO’s director in Europe, told reporters on Thursday after conversations with the director of the Danish Health Authority, Soren Brostrom.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said her country would gladly take the shots: “We still have fewer vaccines than people who want to be vaccinated. Therefore, Lithuania has been willing to take so many doses of Astra. Zeneca, as Denmark is willing to share “.
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