Kiik: No AstraZeneca vaccine doses will arrive in Estonia this week

No doses of the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine will arrive in Estonia this week due to supply problems, Minister for Health and Labor Tanel Kiik (Center) said on Thursday.
The company said last week it would deliver 16,800 doses to Estonia this week, a reduction from the 25,780 doses initially scheduled. Kiik said, according to the latest information, the company plans to send 19,200 next week.
The minister said this puts Estonia behind in its planned vaccination schedule but vaccines will still be administered in the coming weeks. "We have sent about 25,000 doses for frontline workers and risk groups to GP centers, hospitals and occupational health service provider Qvalitas, and there are about 10,000 more vaccine doses in stock at the Health Board," he said.
He said the vaccinations already delivered must be used and more attention is being paid to solving the people of people not turning up to receive vaccines.
The Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna vaccines are continuing to be delivered, although they have also previously been hit by supply issues. Eva Lehtla, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Affairs, confirmed to ERR that 6,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived in Estonia around noon.
"I understand that the information is a bit confusing, but that's the way it is - one day the pharmaceutical companies say one number, the next day another and on the third day it is said that nothing will come," the minister said.
AstraZeneca announced earlier this week that its deliveries to the EU will be half what was initially planned in the second quarter.
As of early Thursday morning, 68,629 people in Estonia have been vaccinated and of those 28,350 people have received two doses.
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Editor: Helen Wright