Covid vaccine in France: Second booster recommended for more groups
Pregnant women and people under 60 with certain health conditions are among those who are now advised to have the additional dose
A second booster dose has now been recommended for more groups of people in France
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French health authorities are recommending that the second vaccine booster campaign be extended to people under 60 with comorbidities making them particularly vulnerable to Covid, those in regular contact with people who are at risk and pregnant women.
France’s health service quality regulator, La Haute autorité de santé (HAS), said it was making the recommendation based on the most recent data available.
This is in addition to the groups already eligible for a second booster: People aged 60 or over, the immunosuppressed, and care home residents.
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The HAS stated: “In a context of epidemic recovery characterised in particular by the circulation of the BA.5 sublineage of Omicron…[we] recommend extending the administration of an additional booster dose [2nd booster or 4th dose most often] to adults under 60 years of age identified as being at risk of a severe form of Covid-19, to pregnant women and to people living in the vicinity of, or in regular contact with, immunocompromised or vulnerable people”.
The recommendation takes in “the latest available data, and in particular French epidemiological data” on the current vaccination coverage of the vulnerable population, and the effectiveness of vaccines on current variants.
It also specified that the time between booster doses should be:
- People aged 80 years or over: 3 months
- Residents of elderly care homes: 3 months
- Immunocompromised people: 3 months
- Everyone else eligible: 6 months
It also said: “If an infection by SARS-CoV-2 has occurred after the last dose, an additional booster dose is still recommended with a minimum delay of three months after the infection.”
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The most recent figures show that there were 127,642 new cases in the past 24 hours in France (-17,4% in comparison with seven days ago). The number of people who have received three doses of the vaccine is now 37,059,582 (19,053 more in the 24 hours to July 12, the date of the latest update).
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