Iceland will receive more vaccines than previously expected, meaning that 190,000 people will be vaccinated by the summer, RUV reports.
This prediction was made only taking into account the vaccines from Pfizer, Morderna and AstraZeneca. Vaccines from other companies such as Janssen are expected to arrive later this year.
Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Minister of Health, spoke on TV today saying, “This is a number we can stand by and it is about these three companies through June.”
You get a vaccine, you get a vaccine, you get a vaccine!
Iceland is expected to sign an agreement to increase the amount of vaccines received from Pfizer on the basis of a new agreement with the EU.
The Ministry of Health expects that the increased production effort from AstraZeneca will also have a large impact on the amount of vaccines. They are hopeful to have over half the country vaccinated by June.
A very Þórólfur response from the Health Minister.
When asked whether there would be a herd immunity test conducted this summer in Iceland, Svandís was very hesitant to give a definitive answer.
“We know that half need to be vaccinated generously, 60 to 70 percent are numbers that have been mentioned. This is something that will become clear as we enter this vaccination chapter in the fight against the epidemic.”
Can we expect a (fairly) normal summer?
Svandis told RÚV on TV “I do not intend to predict that. However, I will say that this looks better than it did a few days or weeks ago because we have more in hand and we were good at traveling domestically last summer and I expect we will continue to do so. Every step towards opening up and having the virus under control is a step towards a better economy.”
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