Lithuanian ministry to decide soon on AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 55

  • 2021-02-01
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – The Lithuanian Health Ministry is planning to decide soon whether to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 55 years.  

"The decision will be made early this week," Aiste Suksta, spokeswoman for the health minister, told BNS on Monday.

The European Medicines Agency last week approved AstraZeneca's vaccine for use in adult citizens of EU member countries.

The agency said in its statement that "there are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years old) to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group".

"However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines," it added. 

The British-Swedish company has said it will deliver 30 percent more coronavirus vaccine doses to the EU than it pledged last week. 

Lithuania expects to receive its first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine on February 7. 

The country is now using the coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.