OSLO (Reuters) – Norway will not offer the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 to individuals over the age of 65, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said on Thursday, making it the latest European country to restrict its use.
So far, some 135,000 individuals in Norway have received their first dose against the disease and some 35,000 have received their second shot, from vaccines made by Moderna and from a partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech, the agency said.
The FHI said there had been few participants above the age of 65 in the trial conducted by AstraZeneca, meaning there was a lack of documentation as to the effect of the vaccine on older age groups.
The Nordic country has 5.4 million inhabitants.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik)