OSLO: Covid-19 vaccine deliveries to Norway and Europe by US pharma group Pfizer will be reduced "as of next week" while the company ramps up production capacity, Norwegian health authorities said Friday.

"The temporary reduction will affect all European countries," Norway's Public Health Agency (FHI) said in a statement.

"It is not immediately clear how long it will take for Pfizer to attain maximum production capacity, which will rise from 1.3 to 2 billion doses annually."

The FHI provided no detailed numbers on deliveries to Europe as a whole, but said Norway would next week receive 36,075 doses, down from the 43,875 previously expected, or a 17.8 percent drop.

In order to compensate for the reduction, Norway will use some of the vaccine doses it had put aside as a precaution when it received its first allotments.

While the Scandinavian country is not a member of the EU, it is closely linked in numerous areas, including the procurement of Covid vaccines negotiated by Brussels.