The Standing Vaccination Committee of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s main public health authority, has found that there is insufficient data on the vaccine’s effectiveness for this age group, according to a statement from the ministry.
“It is not possible to comment on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over the age of 65,” the statement said.
The German decision comes amid an ongoing dispute between the European Union and AstraZeneca over delays in the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine to the block.
AstraZeneca has said it cannot deliver as many doses as the EU expected, citing manufacturing challenges. But the European Commission, which has ordered the vaccine on behalf of the EU member states, says this is unacceptable, and the drug maker must find a way to increase supply.
So far, the EU has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – which could be approved by the European Medicines Agency as early as Friday – with an option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.
The Belgian health authorities – at the request of the European Commission – carried out “an inspection” of AstraZeneca’s Belgian production facility on Wednesday “to ensure that the delay in the delivery of the vaccines is indeed due to a production problem on the Belgian site, “France Dammel, a spokeswoman for Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, said in a statement.
“Belgian experts are examining the elements obtained during this inspection visit, together with Dutch, Italian and Spanish experts,” said Dammel, adding that the report is expected in a few days.
The German government expects the country to face shortages in the supply of the coronavirus vaccine for at least another 10 weeks, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday amid backlash over the pace of the government’s rollout program.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents for seven days in Germany has fallen below the critical threshold of 100 to 98 for the first time in three months, the RKI said Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has outlined that of the government plan to reduce the incidence to less than 50 new infections per 100,000 population within seven days to detect and detect infections.
CNN’s Nadine Schmidt reported from Berlin and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.