| Date | 27 December 2020 – present |
|---|---|
| Location | Nationwide |
| Cause | COVID-19 pandemic |
| Target | Full immunization of people in Iceland against COVID-19 |
| Participants | See below |
| Outcome | 89.1% of the total population have received at least one dose 83.2% of the total population have been fully vaccinated 65.6% of the total population have had a booster shot |
COVID-19 vaccination in Iceland is an effort to immunize the adult population of Iceland due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of July 2021, more than 260,000 individuals had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, [1] which was over 78% of the country's population. [2] On November 21, 2021, 90% of the target population had been fully vaccinated, while around 1 in 5 people had received a booster on top of that; [3] by December 9, 2021, the share of the population having received a booster shot exceeded 50%. [4] On December 13, 2021, the country began offering Pfizer vaccinations to children aged 5–11. [5]
The vaccines approved for use in Iceland are Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Janssen. Iceland has also signed a contract with CureVac. [6]
Iceland signed a contract on December 9, 2020, with Pfizer, and a contract with Moderna on December 30, 2020. Astra Zeneca signed a contract with Iceland on October 15, Janssen on December 22, and CureVac on February 21, 2021. [7]
Iceland's first doses of vaccine were received on December 28, 2020; vaccination began on December 29. [7] Vaccines were optional and free, with priority groups abolished in June 2021 once all residents over 16 had been offered vaccination. All foreign residents were given access, regardless of residency status or whether they had a kennitala, or ID number. [7] Iceland began administering vaccines on December 29, 2020, of the Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca varieties. On March 30, 2021, it was reported that around 100% of Icelandic elderly residents over 80 were fully vaccinated. Doses by Janssen were pending shipments to the country. [8] In March 2021, Icelandic healthcare authorities resumed the use of AstraZeneca, administering it to people over age 70. [9] On April 20, 2021, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra performed for individuals getting the vaccine at the mass vaccination centre, at which point people "of all ages with underlying chronic illnesses" were being vaccinated. [10]
On May 3, 2021, it was reported that Icelandic authorities would be offering vaccines to the general populace not by descending age groups, but by random selection, at which point 29.89% of Iceland's population had one or both shots. On April 29, 2021, the Prime Minister and other government ministers had attended a deCODE study on achieving herd immunity, which the chief epidemiologist then cited as the rationale for seeking to change the rollout methodology. [11]
On June 30, 2021, it was reported that the government had declared their vaccination programme "completed," as every adult in the country had been offered a vaccine, [12] with 87% of their population of 400,000 having received a first dose [12] [13] and 60% having received both doses. The government then said "plans for the vaccination programme and the lifting of restrictions on gatherings have therefore been completed." [12] As of July 2021, more than 260,000 individuals had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. [1] That was around 78% of the country's total overall population. [2] In July 2021, foreign citizens with proof of vaccination were allowed entry with no quarantine required. After reaching 60% of the adult population vaccinated, Iceland had become "the first European country to lift all domestic coronavirus restrictions." [14]
Since the start of the pandemic until August 8, 2021, there had been 8,738 infections and 30 deaths reported to be related in coronavirus in Iceland. [15] Between May 25, 2021, and August 16, 2021, government statistics recorded no COVID-19 deaths in the country, despite a surge in Delta infections mostly among the vaccinated. Iceland ranked fourth in the world in vaccination rollout at the time with 70.6% of its population vaccinated, beneath the official numbers of Malta, the UAE, and Singapore, and having used Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. [16]
The vaccination of Icelandic children aged 12 to 15 began on August 22, 2021, with only the Pfizer/BioNTech used, with Chief Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason stating to the public that vaccinating children was "the right thing to do". [17] By November 9, 2021, 30,000 people had received a booster shot in Iceland, or 76% of the total population, and of those people, 10 had contracted COVID. Þórólfur stated that of the around 270,000 people who were fully vaccinated, 4,500 or 1.6% had contracted COVID. At the time, eligible age groups did not include those under 12 years old. [18] Booster vaccination in Iceland began on November 15, 2021, with the government stating the goal was to vaccinate 160,000 people by Christmas with boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. [19] On November 21, 2021, Euronews reported that 90% of the Icelandic population had been fully vaccinated, while around 1 in 5 people had received a booster on top of that. The week prior, the Icelandic government announced the third dose was available to everyone over 16. [3] By December 13, 2021, Iceland had started offering vaccines to 12 to 15 year olds, while 90% of the eligible population was vaccinated, or 76% of Iceland's total population. [7] On December 13, 2021, it was reported that Þórólfur had "decided to offer children aged 5-11 vaccinations against COVID-19, stating that this decision is comparable to what is being done in surrounding countries such as Denmark, Ireland, Austria, the US, Canada and Israel." He said children's vaccinations would begin in 2022 with the Pfizer vaccine. [5]
On January 4, 2022, the following were the official government numbers on COVID-19: there were 9,125 active cases, with 30 hospitalized, and 8 in the ICU, six of whom were unvaccinated. 77% of the population was considered "fully vaccinated," with 160,357 booster shots administered, or to 43.4% of the population. Around 90% of new cases reported daily were the omicron variant, with around 100 people also still testing positive for the Delta variant daily. [20]
There are several COVID-19 vaccines at various stages of development around the world.
| Vaccine | Approval | Deployment |
|---|---|---|
| Pfizer–BioNTech |  21 December 2020 | 27 December 2020 |
| Moderna | 6 January 2021 | 12 January 2021 |
| Oxford-AstraZeneca | 29 January 2021 | 7 February 2021 |
| Janssen | 11 March 2021 | Yes[ when? ] |
| Novavax | 20 December 2021 | Pending |
| CureVac | Pending | Pending |
| Valneva | Pending | Pending |
| Sanofi–GSK | Pending | Pending |
Iceland has divided its population into ten groups in the order of priority of receiving COVID-19 vaccine. These groups are as follows: [21]
Everyone will be offered a chance to get a vaccine, but vaccination is not mandatory in Iceland. Pregnant women are not considered as a priority group for vaccination in Iceland.[ citation needed ]
Data as reported by Our World in Data. [4]
 | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Note: Target population is 12 years and older.
| Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is the medicine and therapeutic regulatory agency of the Australian Government. As part of the Department of Health and Aged Care, the TGA regulates the safety, quality, efficacy and advertising in Australia of therapeutic goods. Therapeutic goods include goods that are represented to have a therapeutic effect, are included in a class of goods the sole or principal use of which is a therapeutic use, or are otherwise determined to be a therapeutic good through a legislative instrument under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989. Goods that are therapeutic goods must be entered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), or otherwise be the subject of an exemption, approval or authority by the TGA under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990 or Therapeutic Goods Regulations 2002 before they can be imported, supplied, exported or manufactured in Australia.
Þórólfur Guðnason is an Icelandic doctor who served as the Chief Epidemiologist of the Icelandic Directorate of Health from 2015 to 2022. He was one of the lead members of the Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland, along with Alma Möller and Víðir Reynisson.
COVID-19 vaccination in Switzerland is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in the Philippines was a mass immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the pandemic in the country. The vaccination program was initiated by the Duterte administration on March 1, 2021, a day after the arrival of the country's first vaccine doses which were donated by the Chinese government.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Italy is a mass immunization campaign that was put in place by the Italian government in order to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It started on 27 December 2020, together with most countries in the European Union.
The general COVID-19 vaccination in Australia program began on 22 February 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of vaccinating all willing people in Australia before 2022. Front-line workers and aged care staff and residents had priority for being inoculated, before a gradual phased release to less-vulnerable and lower-risk population groups throughout 2021. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved four vaccines for Australian use in 2021: the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine on 25 January, the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine on 16 February, Janssen vaccine on 25 June and the Moderna vaccine on 9 August. Although approved for use, the Janssen vaccine was not included in the Australian vaccination program as of June 2021.
The COVID-19 vaccination programme in the Republic of Ireland is an ongoing mass immunisation campaign that began on 29 December 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland's vaccination rollout has been praised as one of the most successful rollouts in the world and was ranked number one in the European Union in terms of its percentage of adult population fully vaccinated, and was also ranked number one in the EU for the number of booster vaccines administered.
COVID-19 vaccination in Canada is an ongoing, intergovernmental effort coordinated between the bodies responsible in the Government of Canada to acquire and distribute vaccines to individual provincial and territorial governments who in turn administer authorized COVID-19 vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Provinces have worked with local municipal governments, hospital systems, family doctors and independently owned pharmacies to aid in part, or in full with vaccination rollout. The vaccination effort in full is the largest such immunization effort in the nation's history. The vaccination effort began December 14, 2020, and is currently ongoing.
COVID-19 vaccination in Botswana is an ongoing immunisation campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The COVID-19 vaccination program in Colombia is an ongoing effort of mass immunization put in place by the Colombian government in order to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus causing COVID-19 was confirmed to have reached Colombia on 6 March 2020. Colombia's preparation and readiness for a vaccine program allowed it to join the first group of countries who received vaccines through COVAX. The first vaccine in Colombia was given to a nurse on 17 February 2021.
COVID-19 vaccination programs are ongoing in the majority countries and territories in Africa, with 51 of 54 African countries having launched vaccination programs by July 2021. As of October 2023, 51.8% of the continent's population is fully vaccinated with over 1084.5 million doses administered.
Bhutan has promised a free COVID-19 vaccination to all of its citizens, both inside and outside the country. It started mass vaccinations on 27 March 2021.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Quebec was a provincial effort to distribute and administer vaccines against COVID-19.
COVID-19 vaccination in South Korea is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia is an ongoing mass immunization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. On 13 January 2021, the program commenced when President Joko Widodo was vaccinated at the presidential palace. In terms of total doses given, Indonesia ranks third in Asia and fifth in the world.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil is an ongoing mass immunization campaign for the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. It started on January 17, 2021, when the country had 210 thousand deaths.
COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign began in Fiji on the first quarter of 2021 and will continue throughout the year with the goal of vaccinating all eligible Fijians. The government has made it mandatory for all eligible adults to take the COVID-19 vaccines.
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Ukraine is an ongoing mass immunization campaign for the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine.
COVID-19 vaccination in Ontario began in December 2020, when the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were administered. In February 2021, shipments for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increased significantly. By May 2021, over 50 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose. By the beginning of 2022, over 80 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose.