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BUDAPEST, March 3 (Reuters) - Hungary plans to extend the
use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine to people older
than 60 after data showed its efficacy in the group, Surgeon
General Cecilia Muller said on Wednesday as the country ramped
up its inoculation campaign.
A week ago, Hungary became the first European Union member
to start inoculating people with China's Sinopharm vaccine after
rolling out Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as well, even though
neither has been granted approval for emergency use by the bloc.
In order to ensure as many people as possible get at least a
first dose of a vaccine fast, the Hungarian government has
already extended the gap between the first and second doses of
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It also has
widened the gap between the AstraZeneca doses to 12 weeks.
"A new change is that it (AstraZeneca jab) can be given to
everyone above the age of 18 without any age limit. There has
been sufficient data that proves its efficacy also for older
people," Muller said in a briefing.
It was not clear when Hungary would implement the change.
Its AstraZeneca vaccination program scheduled for this coming
weekend is still only for people aged 18 to 60 who have chronic
diseases.
Hungary plans to administer more than half a million jabs
over the next week with the five available vaccines, as it tries
to boost vaccinations to contain a third wave of the pandemic
partly fueled by the British variant of the virus.
As of Wednesday, just over 758,000 people in Hungary had
received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Germany's health minister said earlier on Wednesday that he
had asked that country's vaccine regulator to adjust its
recommendation so that the AstraZeneca vaccine could be rolled
out quickly to those over 65 in Germany.
British scientists urged European countries to take note on
Wednesday of interim data showing what they described as the
"remarkable" effectiveness of a single dose of the
Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines in frail and
elderly people.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves
Editing by Paul Simao)
