All individuals aged 18 years and older, who have received their first set of COVID-19 vaccines, are now eligible for booster shots of the vaccines.
This was announced by the Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony during his daily COVID-19 update on Monday.
His statement comes days after the News Room engaged him on whether the booster programme will be expanded to boost people’s protection against COVID-19, particularly now that a new variant of the novel coronavirus has emerged.
The new variant is known as the Omicron variant.
Last Wednesday, Dr. Anthony said the expansion of the booster programme was under consideration.
On November 19, the Health Minister first announced that persons over 50 years, people aged 18 years and older and frontline workers are eligible for the booster doses.
And on Monday, Dr. Anthony said that a total of 2,774 people have already taken their booster doses. With the new allowance for all adults to get booster doses, it is expected that these numbers will increase over the next few weeks.
For people who received double-dose vaccines, a booster dose would be the third dose; for those who received the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, a booster dose would be a second dose.
People who received both doses of their Sputnik V vaccine can get a Johnson and Johnson vaccine as the booster shot. Those who received both doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, a Pfizer vaccine can also be taken as the booster shot (which would be a third dose).
Meanwhile, those who took both doses of the Sinopharm vaccines can receive a third Sinopharm dose.
Some countries around the world, like the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK), are now offering the booster doses to their entire adult population, especially since they are fearful of a surge in infections and cases.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony previously related that a group convened to advise the Ministry of Health is expected to study all emerging and evolving information on the Omicron variant.
This is being done to ensure that decisions are made with “the science backing it up”.
