First Novavax COVID Vaccine Shipment has Arrived in Austria
The first shipment of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, Nuvaxovid, has finally arrived in Austria. Read about the much-anticipated distribution of the new vaccine and why the government thinks it will help convince some vaccine skeptics.
The first shipment of Novavax COVID vaccines arrived in Austria. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
The Austrian Health Ministry has announced that the first shipment of the new COVID-19 vaccine from the US manufacturer Novavax (Nuvaxovid) has arrived in Austria.
Further, the Health Ministry has also said that the vaccines will be distributed to the various federal states next week.
Austria’s order of 750,000 doses of the Novavax vaccine for the first quarter of 2022 is intended to particularly address those people who have previously refused vaccination.
It is a protein vaccine and is, therefore, rooted in a different technology than the previously available COVID-19 vaccines.
The new vaccine is based on more thoroughly tested technology and thus has been met with less skepticism than the mRNA vaccines.
The effectiveness for protection against symptomatic infections was given by the EU Medicines Agency (EMA) at around 90 percent.
This vaccine requires two doses that are spaced out by about three weeks.
Lower Austria will carry out the first vaccinations with Nuvaxovid beginning next Wednesday.
According to the ORF, there are already 10,082 people pre-registered to receive this vaccine in Lower Austria, the highest amount of any of the federal states.
Upper Austria will begin vaccinating people with Nuvaxovid on March 4, and there are already 5,600 Upper Austrians that have pre-registered for this vaccine.
In addition, Vienna has reported 8,5000 pre-registrations to receive the Novavax vaccine.
About the Novavax vaccine
The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine (Nuvaxovid) was developed and tested by the US manufacturer Novavax during 2020 and 2021.
Nuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373) is a protein subunit vaccine that contains the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
After going through all the trial phases in 2021, the vaccine was shown to be about 90 percent effective against COVID-19.
In December 2021, Nuvaxovid was licensed across the EU for people 18 years and older.
Novavax's vaccine is the fifth COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in the EU.
Nuvaxovid, like all of the COVID-19 vaccines, has proven to be less effective against the Omicron variant than the original variant, but it does provide some level of protection, especially against severe illness from the virus.