Circular from the Ministry of Health: start of administration of "booster" doses of the anti COVID-19 vaccine to subjects aged 80 years or over and staff and guests of residential facilities for the elderly.
At a later stage, a booster dose may also be offered to health professions and operators of health interest who carry out their activities in health facilities, social health and social welfare, public and private, in pharmacies, parapharmacies and professional studios, starting from subjects aged ≥60 years or with concomitant pathology such as to make them vulnerable to forms of severe COVID-19 or with a high level of exposure to the infection.
Regardless of the vaccine used for the primary cycle (Comirnaty, Spikevax, Vaxzevria, Janssen), considering the indications provided by the AIFA technical-scientific commission, for now it will be possible to use any of the two mRNA vaccines authorized in Italy (Comirnaty of BioNTech/Pfizer and Spikevax of Moderna).
The "booster" dose should be administered at least six months after completion of the primary vaccination course.
In line with what was highlighted by the CTS in the aforementioned report, the strategy for administering a "booster" dose may also include subjects with high frailty motivated by concomitant/pre-existing pathologies, subject to the opinion of the regulatory agencies.
The vaccination offer strategy in favor of further target groups or the general population will instead be decided on the basis of the acquisition of new scientific evidence and the epidemiological trend.
Note: The third doses, it is clarified in the Circular, will concern mRna vaccines. "The booster dose" instead for the others and "must be administered at least six months after the last dose". A booster dose, "means a booster dose after completion of the primary vaccination course, after a certain time interval, administered in order to maintain or restore an adequate level of immune response over time, particularly in populations characterized by a high risk.
In the Circular it is said that in at a later stage, a booster dose may also be offered to health professions and operators of health interest who carry out their activities in health facilities.
Although the ISFs do not officially belong to these categories, they fall into those set out in the Interim recommendations on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccination target groups of the March 10, 2021, with which the categories of population to be vaccinated and the priorities have been updated and among them are the ISF.
Related news: CIRCULAR of the Ministry of Health THETime lag between administration of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines. “In view of the approaching influenza vaccination campaign, it is possible that some categories of subjects for whom seasonal influenza vaccination is recommended and actively offered free of charge are at the same time eligible for vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 /COVID-19"
Comirnaty and Spikevax: EMA recommendations on extra doses and boosters
