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The Standing Committee on Immunization at the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s leading public health authority, found insufficient data on the effectiveness of the vaccine for this age group, according to a statement from the ministry.
“It is not possible to make a statement on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over 65,” the statement said.
The German move comes amid an ongoing dispute between the European Union and AstraZeneca over delays in delivering its coronavirus vaccine to the bloc.
AstraZeneca said it could not deliver as many doses as the EU expected, citing production challenges. But the European Commission, which ordered the vaccine on behalf of EU member states, says it’s unacceptable and the drugmaker must find a way to increase supply.
So far, the EU has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – which could be approved for use by the European Medicines Agency as early as Friday – with an option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.
The Belgian health authorities – at the request of the European Commission – carried out on Wednesday “an inspection” of the Belgian production site of AstraZeneca “to ensure that the delay in the delivery of vaccines is indeed due to a production problem on the Belgian site, “France Dammel, spokesperson for Belgian Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke, said in a statement.
“Belgian experts are examining the evidence obtained during this inspection visit, together with Dutch, Italian and Spanish experts,” Dammel said, adding that the report is expected in a few days.
The German government expects the country to face coronavirus vaccine shortages for at least another 10 weeks, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday amid a backlash to the pace of the program government vaccine deployment.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 population over seven days in Germany fell below the critical threshold of 100 for the first time in three months, to 98, the RKI said on Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel presented the plan to reduce the incidence rate to less than 50 new infections per 100,000 population within seven days so that infections can be tracked and traced.
CNN’s Nadine Schmidt reported from Berlin and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.
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