The Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) has announced that the third vaccine against COVID-19 will be available in Croatia next week. It is a vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca/Oxford, and 150,000 doses of this vaccine should arrive in Croatia in February.
AstraZeneca is intended for people over 18 years of age. Two doses of this vaccine are needed, and the second dose should be given between 8 and 12 weeks after the first dose.
“In clinical studies taken into consideration by the European Medicines Agency, vaccine efficacy is about 60% in disease prevention defined by the presence of at least one of the symptoms of the disease with laboratory confirmation of infection.
The estimated efficacy of this vaccine in the elderly is equal to that in younger adults. Still, in the data taken into account by the European Medicines Agency, it did not prove statistically significant, primarily due to the small number of respondents in older age groups,” says HZJZ.
HZJZ also explains that the side effects caused by this vaccine are not unexpected and unusual, and “the only real contraindication for use is hypersensitivity to the components of the vaccine.”
According to the HZJZ, there is no maximum age limit for the use of this vaccine.
“Based on the available data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines registered in Croatia by a centralized procedure (via the European Medicines Agency), there is no reason to make a recommendation for vaccination that would differ from the indications approved by the European Medicines Agency, i.e., the minimum age limit for the use of this vaccine is 18 years. There is no maximum age limit.”
Based on additional information about AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, which indicates that:
– it has been shown that a single dose of AstraZeneca vaccine protects about 70% for three weeks after administration and that this protection does not weaken within 12 weeks,
– according to the Summary of Product Characteristics, the recommended interval between the first and second dose is 4 to 12 weeks,
– the final result, i.e., the efficacy after the second dose, is higher when the interval between the first and second doses is greater,
we recommend that the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine be given 8-12 weeks after the first dose,” concluded HZJZ.
Source: Index.hr
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