Finland to get fewer coronavirus vaccines

Finland may get less than 37,000 coronavirus vaccines this week (beginning on 18 January), which is almost 10,000 less than the expectation, said the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) on Friday.

The slow production of the vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech is the reason behind the supply of lower quantity to Finland and other European countries as well.

On an average, Finland is scheduled to get 50,000 doses of vaccines every week in January and February.

The supply of the lower quantity of vaccines will affect the distribution of vaccines to different hospital districts of the country.

The supply difficulties will also delay the schedule of vaccination for the elderly people.

Based on the country’s population, Finland gets 1.23% of the vaccines procured jointly with the European Union.

At present, Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is in use in Finland, and Moderna vaccines are expected to arrive in the next few days.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will process Astra-Zeneca’s application for marketing authorisation for the adenovirus vector vaccine in the week beginning from 25 January.

The potential marketing authorisation is expected to significantly increase the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.