2021-03-10 22:05:46 GMT2021-03-11 06:05:46(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
HELSINKI, March 10 (Xinhua) Finland s National Advisory Committee on Vaccines (KRAR) authorized on Wednesday the use of AstraZeneca s COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 70 and older, said a press release issued by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
AstraZeneca s vaccine received conditional marketing authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at the end of January. At the time, KRAR recommended that the vaccine be given only to people under the age of 70 in Finland as there was very limited research data on the effectiveness of the vaccine in the elderly.
Soome hakkab AstraZeneca vaktsiiniga vaktsineerima ka üle 70-aastasi delfi.ee - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from delfi.ee Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Local authorities in Pirkanmaa are changing their coronavirus testing strategy, reports Tampere regional paper Aamulehti.
The Pirkanmaa Hospital District will expand testing to try and catch asymptomatic patients with the aim of trying to test everyone identified as having potentially been exposed to the virus by test and trace efforts, the paper writes.
The move is an expansion of a more targeted strategy the region had been using until now, Tampere University Hospital s
Jaana Syrjänen told Aamulehti. We have been testing those in quarantine if their family members work in social and health care. It may be that we can break the chain [of infection] sooner, she said.
Thursday s papers: Vaccine strategies, career change, airport expansion yle.fi - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yle.fi Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 60 percent, according to the European Medicines Agency.
Vial of AstraZeneca vaccine, file photo.
Image: Jussi Nukari / Lehtikuva
According to current information, the first batch of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine could be available in Finland by the middle of next week, according to
Toni Relander, the Institute for Health and Welfare s (THL) pharmaceutical wholesale director.
However, the question of whether the vaccine will be given to people over the age of 65, remains up in the air due to questions about its efficacy in elderly people.
There is speculation that the vaccine which was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) last week might not be approved for seniors in Finland because data covering that group in the AstraZeneca trial is not extensive.