Pfizer vaccine: Norway expresses concern after 29 elderly people die

At least 29 people have died in Norway after they were given Pfizer Inc. vaccine, according to a report.

The country expressed concern about the safety of the vaccine on elderly people.

“The latest figure adds six to the number of known fatalities in Norway, and lowers the age group thought to be affected to 75 from 80,” a report in Business Standard said.

The report comes a couple of days after Pfizer said it will temporarily reduce its deliveries to Europe of its vaccine against COVID-19 while it upgrades its production capacity, the company and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said on Friday.

“We received this message today a little before 10am (0900 GMT). We had expected 43,875 vaccines doses from Pfizer in week 3 (next week). Now it appears that we will get 36,075 doses,” the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said in a statement.

The reduction in deliveries is due to Pfizer limiting output so that it can upgrade production capacity to 2 billion vaccine doses per year from 1.3 billion currently, the FHI said.