<Anchor>
Following France, European countries, including Germany and Sweden, are successively approving AstraZeneca vaccinations for the elderly.
This is because a new study has been published that has a high preventive effect on the elderly.
Reporter Kim Young-ah reports.
<Reporter>
Yesterday (4th), the German government officially approved the AstraZeneca Corona 19 vaccine to be vaccinated by people 65 years of age or older.
Chancellor Merkel hoped that this would allow older people awaiting vaccination to get the vaccine sooner.
[Merkel/German Prime Minister: I think we can approve AstraZeneca vaccination for the elderly.
Evidence for this has been confirmed in recent studies.]
Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK
reported that the
AstraZeneca Corona 19 vaccine is more than 80% effective in preventing severe disease in the elderly and high risk groups.
A study at the University of Edinburgh last month found that the risk of hospitalization in Scotland after 4 weeks of AstraZeneca was reduced by around 90%.
The EU approved AstraZeneca vaccination at the end of January for all adults over the age of 18, but some European countries have restricted vaccination to older people due to lack of clinical data.
Austria also started vaccinating AstraZeneca vaccinations for seniors aged 65 and over from yesterday, and Swedish health authorities have also expanded the scope of vaccination recommendations to those over 65 years of age.
Belgium and Hungary have also expanded vaccination targets, which were limited to 55 and under 60, respectively, to the elderly.