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PARIS (Reuters) – France will allow people under the age of 75 with existing health problems to get the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the health minister said, starting from an earlier position that the vaccine does not should only be intended for those under 65.
The reassessment is expected to help speed up France’s vaccination campaign, which many have criticized as being too slow. As of Saturday, 4.55 million people had received at least one injection of an AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.
This compares to 6.17 million in Germany and 20.9 million in Britain.
Health Minister Olivier Veran told France 2 television that raising the age limit would allow 2.5 million additional people to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.
People aged 75 and over would continue to receive only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Veran said.
When the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use by EU regulators this year, France and other countries, including Germany, Italy and Austria, said it shouldn’t be administered to the elderly, citing a lack of sufficient data.
The country’s main advisory body, the Haute Autorité de la Santé (HAS), said at the time that it would reconsider its position afterwards.
Britain has been rolling out the AstraZeneca vaccine since January, starting with the elderly and health workers, after approving its use for all adults.
In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, HAS officials justified the change in stance after a study in Scotland of 5.4 million people showed that Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca injections were very effective in preventing severe infections.
In people aged 80 and over – one of the highest risk groups for COVID-19 – vaccination was associated with an 81% reduction in the risk of hospitalization in the fourth week after a first dose , when the results of the two vaccines were combined.
“These are remarkable results, they allow us to move forward,” the head of HAS, Dominique Le Guludec, told reporters.
Another study by Public Health England came to similar conclusions.
Report by Benoit Van Overstraten. Additional reporting by Alistair Smout; Writing by Christian Lowe and Matthias Blamont; Editing by Nick Macfie
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