A researcher works on a vaccine towards the brand new coronavirus COVID-19 on the Copenhagen’s College analysis lab in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 23, 2020.
Thibault Savary | AFP | Getty Photographs
Denmark has turn into the primary nation to halt its Covid vaccination program, saying it’s doing so as a result of the virus is now below management.
“Spring has arrived, vaccine protection within the Danish inhabitants is excessive, and the epidemic has reversed,” the Danish Well being Authority mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
“Due to this fact, the Nationwide Board of Well being is now ending the broad vaccination efforts towards Covid-19 for this season,” it mentioned. Folks won’t be invited for vaccines from Could 15, it mentioned, though everybody will be capable of end their course of vaccination.
Denmark’s Covid vaccination marketing campaign started quickly after Christmas in 2020. Some 4.8 million residents have been vaccinated, the well being authority mentioned, with over 3.6 million individuals receiving a booster shot.
On the identical time, many individuals have been contaminated because the omicron variant grew to become the dominant pressure of the virus, it mentioned, which means immunity ranges among the many inhabitants are excessive.
“We’re in place,” Bolette Soborg, unit supervisor on the Nationwide Board of Well being commented.Â
“Now we have good management of the epidemic, which appears to be subsiding. Admission charges [to hospital] are secure and we additionally anticipate them to fall quickly. Due to this fact, we’re rounding up the mass vaccination program towards Covid-19.”
Soborg insisted that the general public can nonetheless be vaccinated over the spring and summer season if they need, and that vaccination websites will stay open across the nation.
He added that immunization was nonetheless really helpful to individuals for whom Covid poses a heightened danger, comparable to these over the age of 40 and for unvaccinated pregnant ladies. “We additionally proceed to advocate that you just full your began vaccination course,” he mentioned.
Vaccinations more likely to resume
Denmark’s transfer to droop its vaccination program comes because the Covid state of affairs world wide stays combined. Europe and the U.S. have deserted most Covid restrictions, however China continues to be imposing (or contemplating) lockdowns because the virus spreads in main cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
Removed from scrapping its vaccination program altogether, nonetheless, the Danish Well being and Medicines Authority mentioned there’ll most likely be a have to vaccinate towards Covid-19 once more within the fall because the virus continues to mutate.
New variants have emerged over the course of the pandemic, which is now into its third 12 months. These have eroded the efficacy of the Covid vaccines that have been developed in file time in 2020, though the photographs licensed to be used within the West stay efficient at stopping critical an infection, hospitalization and dying from Covid-19.
With the vaccination program more likely to restart in a couple of months’ time, Denmark’s well being specialists can be who ought to be vaccinated, when the photographs ought to be given and which vaccines ought to be used.
The Danish Well being and Medicines Authority mentioned it will proceed to observe the event of the epidemic carefully, and is able to restart vaccination efforts once more if there’s a have to immunize further goal teams earlier than the autumn.
