STOCKHOLM, March 30 (Xinhua) -- About 200 COVID-19 cases were reported among individuals who have received two doses of vaccines, and 6,000 cases were reported in individuals who received one dose, the Swedish Public Health Agency announced on Tuesday.
The country used three vaccines in its vaccination campaign from Pfizer/BioNTech, Modena and AstraZeneca.
As of Friday, more than 1 million Swedes had received their first dose and more than 447,000 had received two doses, according to the latest statistics from the Public Health Agency.
Two-thirds of the 6,000 who tested positive for COVID-19 following the first dose fell ill within two weeks after being vaccinated, before the body had time to build up protection.
Among those who had two doses, 200 had tested positive two weeks or later after the last dose was administered.
"No vaccine provides 100 percent protection. When it comes to vaccination against COVID-19, the first analyzes show that the number of breakthrough infections in Sweden is in line with what is expected," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said in the press release on Tuesday.
"It is important that everyone continues to follow current rules and recommendations to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This also applies to people who have been vaccinated," the press release said.
Meanwhile, the Public Health Agency said it expects more vaccinated people to test positive as the virus continues to spread.
Since the pandemic started, Sweden's policy has been relatively loose compared to other countries, with non-mandatory recommendations to the public.
With the arrival of the third wave of the pandemic, the number of confirmed cases has started to increase dramatically, making Sweden the worst affected among the Nordic countries, with more than 780,000 confirmed cases as well as more than 13,000 deaths.
The country has by Sunday received 1,380,000 doses of the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, 488,000 doses from AstraZeneca, and 170,000 from Moderna. Enditem
