1st delivery of AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in Estonia this week

TALLINN - The first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine containing about 14,000 doses should arrive in Estonia by the end of this week, the daily Postimees writes.

"According to the information currently available, the first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be launched on Feb. 7 and the manufacturer has promised to deliver approximately 14,000 doses of the vaccine with the first delivery and approximately 21,000 doses with the second delivery," Kart Sober, adviser at the department for public health at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine produced in the United Kingdom is the third coronavirus vaccine to reach Estonia in addition to Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.

Altogether 1,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine and 10,530 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived at the Health Board on Sunday.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is administered in two doses and the patient will receive the second dose 4 to 12 weeks later. The second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is already in use in Estonia, is injected on day 21, while in the case of Moderna, the recommended interval is 28 days.

In clinical trials, the effectiveness of AstraZeneca was estimated to be about 60 percent. Most of the participants in the studies were aged between 18 and 55 years.

The most common side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine in clinical trials were usually mild to moderate and went away within a few days of vaccination. The most common side effects are pain and tenderness at the injection site, headache, tiredness, muscle aches, general malaise, chills, fever, joint pain and nausea.

According to Irja Lutsar, head of the anti-COVID-19 research council, it is not known at this time that the side effects of AstraZeneca will be very different from those of Pfizer or Moderna. "I think they are all well tolerable. This is not a problem," Lutsar said.