Denmark is set to discard as many as 1.1 million doses of Wuhan coronavirus vaccines after announcing last week that it would be halting its vaccination programme.
Officials in Denmark have indicated that they may have to scarp the 1.1 million vaccine doses as they are set to expire soon and that while they have made attempts to donate the doses to other countries, they have not succeeded in their efforts.
The Statens Serum Institut (SSI), the government agency in charge of recording the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus in the country, stated that the country simply has a large surplus of vaccines and that just over eight in ten Danes have received at least two doses, the Associated Press reports.
The move comes just days after the Danish government announced last week that it would be halting its vaccination programme entirely, with the Danish Health Authority claiming that infections were falling and rates of hospitalisation were coming to stable levels.
Bolette Soborg, the infectious disease director of the Health Authority, commented on the move saying it would only be temporary and said, “We plan to reopen the vaccination programme in the autumn. This will be preceded by a thorough professional assessment of who and when to vaccinate and with which vaccines.”
Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe to end Wuhan coronavirus restrictions earlier this year in January, with the country’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen referring to the ending of mask mandates by saying the country could “smile again.”
Denmark’s move, which followed England’s by just days, was met with a wave of other European countries also declaring they would be ending their coronavirus restrictions, including many countries dropping their health pass systems.
Now, very few countries maintain a health pass system or mask mandates, with Italy recently dropping their health pass system on May 1st.
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