The World Health Organization (WHO) has modified its recommendations on vaccines for COVID-19, suggesting that high-risk populations receive an additional dose 12 months after their last booster.
The health agency defined older adults as high-risk populations, as well as younger people with other significant risk factors.
For this group, the agency recommends an additional shot of the vaccine 6 to 12 months after the last dose, depending on factors such as age and immunocompromised conditions.
The WHO defined the group that includes healthy children and adolescents as “low priority” and urged countries to take factors such as disease burden into account before recommending vaccination of this group.
The recommendations come at a time when countries are taking different approaches to their populations. Some high-income countries, such as the UK and Canada, are already offering high-risk people boosters of COVID-19 vaccines this spring, six months after their last dose.
The WHO noted that this was an option for a subgroup of people at special risk, but that its recommendations were intended as a global guide to good practice.
The agency noted that its expert committee had also said that additional COVID booster shots beyond the initial series — two shots and one booster — are no longer routinely recommended for people at “medium risk.”
Source: Reuters
Source: Gestion
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