PlumX Metrics
Embed PlumX Metrics

Modeling geographic vaccination strategies for COVID-19 in Norway

medRxiv
2023
  • 0
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 0
    Captures
  • 1
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Mentions
    1
    • News Mentions
      1
      • News
        1

Most Recent News

Modeling geographic vaccination strategies for COVID-19 in Norway

2023 SEP 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract,

Article Description

Vaccination was a key intervention in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic globally. In early 2021, Norway faced significant regional variations in COVID-19 incidence and prevalence, with large differences in population density, necessitating efficient vaccine allocation to reduce infections and severe outcomes. This study explored alternative vaccination strategies to minimize health outcomes (infections, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, deaths) by varying regions prioritized, extra doses prioritized, and implementation start time. Using two models (individual-based and meta-population), we simulated COVID-19 transmission during the primary vaccination period in Norway, covering the first 7 months of 2021. We investigated alternative strategies to allocate more vaccine doses to regions with a higher force of infection. We also examined the robustness of our results and highlighted potential structural differences between the two models. Our findings suggest that early vaccine prioritization could reduce COVID-19 related health outcomes by 8% to 20% compared to a baseline strategy without geographic prioritization. For minimizing infections, hospitalizations, or ICU admissions, the best strategy was to initially allocate all available vaccine doses to fewer high-risk municipalities, comprising approximately one-fourth of the population. For minimizing deaths, a moderate level of geographic prioritization, with approximately one-third of the population receiving doubled doses, gave the best outcomes by balancing the trade-off between vaccinating younger people in high-risk areas and older people in low-risk areas. The actual strategy implemented in Norway was a two-step moderate level aimed at maintaining the balance and ensuring ethical considerations and public trust. However, it did not offer significant advantages over the baseline strategy without geographic prioritization. Earlier implementation of geographic prioritization could have more effectively addressed the main wave of infections, substantially reducing the national burden of the pandemic.

Bibliographic Details

Louis Yat Hin Chan; Gunnar Rø; Jørgen Eriksson Midtbø; Francesco Di Ruscio; Anja Bråthen Kristoffersen; Alfonso Diz Lois Palomares; Jonas Christoffer Lindstrøm; Birgitte Freiesleben de Blasio; Sara Sofie Viksmoen Watle; Lene Kristine Juvet; Are Stuwitz Berg; Jasper Littmann; Preben Aavitsland; Karin Maria Nygård; Geir Bukholm; Kenth Engø-Monsen; Solveig Engebretsen; David Swanson; Arnoldo Frigessi

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Medicine

Provide Feedback

Have ideas for a new metric? Would you like to see something else here?Let us know