COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark’s health authority said on Friday it would recommend giving AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to everyone aged over 18 after a vaccination study from Scotland showed positive results across all ages.
Mirroring a similar approach in many other European Union countries, Denmark had previously only recommended giving the shot to under-65s, saying it would wait until more data on efficacy among the elderly is available.
The new recommendation follows the release of a large study from Scotland, which showed a markedly reduced risk of a serious course of illness from COVID-19 across all age groups following vaccination, the agency said.
Most elderly people in Scotland had been vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, it said.
When the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use by EU regulators earlier this year, many EU countries including France, Germany and Italy said it should not be given to the elderly, citing a lack of sufficient data.
But France and others, which lag far behind Britain with their vaccination campaigns, have also now moved to allow their elderly citizens to receive AstraZeneca shots following the Scottish study.
(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; editing by John Stonestreet and Gareth Jones)
