Covid-19: Third vaccination dose for over 65’s from October 11th

Over 65’s in Portugal will start to be vaccinated with the third dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 from October 11th, announced the Assistant Secretary of State and Health yesterday.

António Lacerda Sales said that the General Directorate of Health (DGS) will issue a standard with “technical support for this third dose”, or booster dose, noting that the vaccine will start to be administered to people residing in nursing homes and over 80 years of age.

“We will start with the most vulnerable groups, namely residential structures for the elderly, for the age group above 80 years and then we move on to those 65 years and over, as was done when the first phase of covid vaccination was carried out”, the secretary of state told journalists. 

The government official also stressed that this booster dose would be administered from October 11th.

The EMA today indicated that booster doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Anticovid-19 vaccine “may be considered” for people over 18, six months after the second dose, to boost antibodies, but only to people who show a “severely weakened immune systems”.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health also confirmed in early September that a third additional dose of the vaccine will be administered to immunocompromised individuals aged over 16, such as transplanted, HIV-positive and cancer patients.

Asked whether the third dose of the covid-19 vaccine can be administered simultaneously with the flu jab, António Lacerda Sales said that a decision by the World Health Organization on the issue of co-administration is awaited, and should be announced “very soon”.

“Right now there is no technical indication, but we are vaccinating with covid vaccine and flu vaccine 14 days apart. We started the flu vaccination on September 27th, the third dose covid vaccinations will start, hopefully, from October 11th, when the 14 days are up,” he said.

Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/