Denmark will offer a fourth coronavirus vaccination to the most vulnerable citizens as it faces record infections from the Omicron variant, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.
The move comes as lawmakers agreed to ease restrictions at the end of the week, including reopening cinemas and music venues, as hospitalisation rates and deaths have stabilised despite the surge in cases.
The European Union's drug regulator has expressed doubts about the need for a fourth dose and said there was no data to support this approach as it seeks more information on the fast-spreading variant. "We are in a better position than we had anticipated and feared," said Soren Brostrom, head of the Danish Health Agency. "We can now say with considerably more certainty that this new virus variant, which is now the predominant, causes less disease."
Denmark has high support for COVID-19 vaccination, with four out of five having received two jabs and just over half of the population with three jabs.