Status: 07/11/2022 2:27 p.m
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“Don’t lose any time”: The EU recommends a second corona booster vaccination for people over 60 years of age. According to EU Health Commissioner Kyriakides, the reason is the renewed increase in cases and hospital admissions.
Over 60-year-olds and vulnerable groups should be boosted a second time. The European Union recommends this.
“It is important that everyone over the age of 60 and everyone at risk get a second booster dose as soon as possible,” said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, according to a statement from the EU Health Agency ECDC and the EU Medicines Agency EMA. The reason for the recommendation is the renewed increase in the number of cases and hospital admissions since the beginning of summer.
“Lose no time”
“We have no time to waste,” Kyriakides continued. She called on the EU member states to immediately provide second booster vaccinations for the affected groups. These could be given at least four months after the previous vaccination. Until now, EU health authorities had only recommended a second booster shot for people over 80 and those most at risk.
ECDC Director Andrea Ammon emphasized that the number of corona cases is currently increasing. The trend is also upwards in several countries for admissions to hospitals and the occupancy of intensive care units. The main reason for these developments is the spread of the omicron subvariant BA.5. “This signals the beginning of a new, widespread Covid-19 wave in the European Union,” said the German doctor. People over 60 and medically vulnerable populations are those at highest risk of serious illnesses. Giving these people a second booster will prevent a significant number of hospitalizations and deaths.
According to EMA boss Emer Cooke, work is currently being carried out on a possible approval of adapted vaccines in September. “In the meantime, it is important to consider using the currently approved vaccines as a second booster dose in individuals who are particularly at risk.”
Experts assume that the incidence is underreported
In Germany, the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) has so far recommended a second booster vaccination for people over the age of 70, at-risk patients and residents of care facilities and employees in the medical field and in care facilities. According to current information, 7.3 percent of the population in Germany have received a second booster vaccination.
In view of the easy transferability of the omicron variant, the nationwide seven-day incidence is currently 661.4 new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
However, the incidence does not provide a complete picture of the infection situation. Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics.
The Bremen virologist Andreas Dotzauer recommended putting on masks outdoors when things got “tight”. “The experience from the first phase of the pandemic, that infections are rather unlikely in the open air in summer, is simply no longer true,” said the head of the laboratory for virus research at the University of Bremen to the “Weser-Kurier”.
The German General Practitioners Association calls for a vaccination campaign
The German Association of General Practitioners called on the federal government on Friday for a new vaccination campaign to fight the corona pandemic. “A positive vaccination campaign is needed – not only for the fourth vaccination, but also to close the vaccination gaps for the first and third vaccinations,” said the head of the association, Ulrich Weigeldt, to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany.
The campaign must motivate people and not scare them. Vaccination is and will remain the most important and effective measure in the fight against the corona virus.
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