Coronavirus: EU recommends second booster dose for over-60s


BRUSSELS/LONDON, July 11 (Reuters) – European Union health authorities on Monday recommended a second COVID-19 vaccine booster for people over 60 as many EU countries face to a further increase in infections and hospitalizations.

Although existing vaccines against the disease-causing coronavirus continue to provide good protection against hospitalizations and deaths, their effectiveness has suffered as the virus evolves.

“It is crucial that all people over 60 and all vulnerable people come forward to receive a second booster dose as soon as possible,” said Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health.

The second vaccine booster dose against COVID-19 was until now only recommended for people over 80 or frail.

This new recommendation must then be translated at national level and could help relaunch vaccination campaigns in each country, which have slowed down considerably in recent months.

“We are currently seeing an increase in COVID-19 case notification rates and an upward trend in admissions and occupancy of hospital beds and intensive care units in several countries, mainly due to the under-eating. -lineage BA.5 (of the variant) Omicron (of the coronavirus),” said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Vaccine makers, like Moderna or the Pfizer and BioNTech alliance, have been testing modified versions of their vaccines in an attempt to make them more effective against the BA.1 Omicron variant.

While these laboratories claim to have observed a good immune response against BA.1 with these modified versions of their vaccines, they have also observed a weaker response against the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

The European Medicines Agency, which is currently reviewing data on two variant-matched vaccines, hopes to approve the first vaccines of this new generation by September. (Report Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Natalie Grover in London, French version Elitsa Gadeva)










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