Additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine essential? Here’s what WHO said

As people are completing their full course of the COVID-19 vaccination, many queries regarding a booster dose of the vaccine have been surfacing from across the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has finally addressed whether an additional dose of the COVID vaccine is required or not.

An expert panel of WHO recommended that people who have a weak immune system should be offered an additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccines which have been approved by the organization. The agency further said that people above the age of 60 who have received two doses of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines from China should also opt for a third dose.

The WHO expert panel said, “SAGE recommended that moderately and severely immunocompromised persons should be offered an additional dose of all WHO EUL Covid-19 vaccines as part of an extended primary series.” The panel said that these people are at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 and are less likely to respond adequately to a standard vaccination course.

WHO vaccine’s chief Kevin O’Brien has said that an additional dose of the vaccine should be made a part of the designated COVID-19 vaccine course for people who have a weaker immune system. He further said that this dose should be administered after a wait of one to three months.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) has further reiterated that the booster shot of the COVID vaccine has not been recommended for the general population yet, as the administering of the first and second jabs should be the top priority for nations for now.

WHO, till now, has given emergency usage approval to several COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Janssen, Moderna, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and AstraZeneca. The decision regarding the approval of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for emergency use listing (EUL) is pending for October 2021.