The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its recommendations for human vaccination against

COVID-19

following a March 20-23 meeting of the Strategic Advisory Group of Immunization Experts (SAGE).

The changes concern additional booster doses and the intervals between them.  

This is stated on the WHO website.

SAGE therefore revised the roadmap for prioritizing the use of vaccines against COVID-19 to reflect the impact of Omicron and the high level of population immunity through infection and vaccination.

The population was divided into 3 groups depending on whether they needed vaccination. 

The high-risk group includes:

  • elderly people;

  • young people with concomitant diseases (diabetes, heart disease, etc.);

  • people with immunodeficiency conditions (for example, transplant recipients or people with HIV), in particular children from 6 months;

  • pregnant women;

  • medical workers

The group is recommended to administer booster doses 6-12 months after the last dose.

But the terms also depend on age and immunodeficiency states.

Medium risk group:

  • healthy adults without concomitant diseases (usually up to 50-60 years old);

  • children and adolescents with concomitant diseases.

Primary vaccination (1 or 2 vaccinations depending on the vaccine) and the first booster are recommended for them.

Further revaccination is considered inadvisable by the WHO, because it has a low impact on public health in general.

Healthy children and adolescents belong to the low-risk group.

WHO data show that vaccination of this group is safe, but of low effectiveness for general public health. 

That is why priority is given to people from the high-risk group, because in case of illness, patients will create a significant burden on the medical system.

The organization emphasizes that due to a change in the epidemiological situation, these recommendations may change.

But they hope that the pandemic will end in 2023.

We will remind you that

Biden signed a decree on the declassification of information about the origin of the coronavirus.

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