Due to a drop in demand, Covid-19 vaccination service providers have almost ceased procuring Janssen Covid-19 vaccine, said the leader of the National Health Service’s Vaccination Project Eva Juhņēviča in an interview to TV3 programme 900 sekundes on Thursday, 27 January.
She stresses that in 2021 Latvia was in a privileged situation. This situation continues because once supply chains were organised, all vaccines approved for use in the EU became available in Latvia.
«Residents have freedom of choice when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines. The option to get vaccinated using Janssen vaccine remains available, but we can see demand for it has dropped,» said Juhņēviča.
She is convinced that people understand this vaccine is less effective. «As soon as information was reported that the term of efficacy of this vaccine is shorter when compared to other vaccines, we observed a change in behaviour among residents,» said the leader of the vaccination project.
Commenting on whether or not the use of this vaccine could be discontinued, she said «the idea is on the table».
«This vaccine remains available in Latvia. We have stores of it. But this particular vaccine is rarely requested by vaccination providers,» explains Juhņēviča.
Hospitals have stores of this vaccine, and every day people come in and request vaccination using it.
Read also: Union leader: Omicron has impacted medical workers more than previous Covid-19 variants
Juhņēviča admits that the demand for vaccines is down. This means it is necessary to adapt the work hours of large vaccination centres. According to her, demand is down also because of the rapid spread of Omicron variant of Covid-19. The reason is because more people are becoming contact persons.
Vaccination project leader: procurements of J&J vaccine almost completely discontinued
