Source::Xinhuanet
STOCKHOLM,
The Swedish government vowed on Thursday to implement its vaccination plans as scheduled after concerns voiced by the country's state epidemiologist earlier in the week. "There is nothing today indicating that we would not be able to handle this, provided that we receive the (vaccine) deliveries we have an agreement on," Lena Hallengren, minister for health and social affairs, told journalists on Thursday.
On Wednesday, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told the daily Dagens Nyheter that the plan to have all adult Swedes vaccinated by the end of June may fail due to vaccine delivery problems. And in Thursday's press conference he voiced a new concern: the more contagious coronavirus mutation first discovered in Britain is spreading in Sweden.
A total of 12,370 COVID-19-related deaths had been recorded in Sweden by Thursday, 44 more than the previous day. Since the pandemic started, 604,577 individuals had been confirmed infected, 4,333 more than on Wednesday. As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 242 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 9.
ALSO READ
