The Permanent Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany (RKI), the country’s most important public health authority, has found there is insufficient information on the efficacy of the vaccine for this age group, according to a statement from the ministry.
“It is not possible to make a statement regarding the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people over 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 bloc.
AstraZeneca said it could not deliver as many doses as the EU expected, citing production challenges. But the European Commission, which ordered the vaccine on behalf of EU member states, says it is unacceptable and the drugmaker must find a way to increase supply.
So far, the EU has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – which can be approved by the European Medicines Agency as well as Friday – with the option to buy another 100 million doses.
Belgian health authorities have – at the request of the European Commission – carried out an ‘inspection’ of AstraZeneca’s Belgian production plant 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 spokesman for the 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,” Dammel said, adding that the report is expected in a few days.
The German government expects the country to have deficits in the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine for at least another ten weeks, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday amid the setback over the pace of the government’s rollout program.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days in Germany fell to 98 below the critical threshold of 100 for the first time in three months, the RKI said on Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel outlines government plans to reduce the incidence to less than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days in order to detect infections.
CNN’s Nadine Schmidt reported from Berlin and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.