The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized this Thursday the need to strengthen vaccination against Covid-19 given the emergence of new viral variants, highlighting that just over half of the world’s population has received a booster dose.
According to the technical lead of the Covid-19 response at WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove, who spoke at the organization’s regular press conference, “There is still a big gap in reinforcement coverage”since “Only 58% of the world’s population has a booster dose”.
The percentage drops to 30% in Southeast Asia and 8% in Africa.
Maria Van Kerkhove stressed that the elderly “are critical age groups” who need booster doses to “prevent serious illness and death”, and stressed that in several countries in America and Europe, the number of hospital admissions and admissions to intensive care units is increasing.
“The virus is evolving, changing. We continue to monitor the variants in circulation.”declared Maria Van Kerkhove, highlighting that the EG.5 variant, a mutation of the Ómicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, represents “about 39%” of the genetic sequences created for the coronavirus worldwide.
The Directorate General of Public Health (DGS) published on Thursday the standard for seasonal booster vaccination against Covid-19, which indicates that the vaccine has been adapted to the 2023-2024 season and will be administered for the first time in pharmacies to people under 19 years of age. the age of 60 years.
According to the standard, people who are not eligible for a booster against Covid-19 and who do not have an updated recommended vaccination schedule (primary or booster vaccination schedule) must update this at the first vaccination opportunity.
The simultaneous administration of the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, during the following autumn-winter, with the inactivated influenza vaccine should be carried out as a measure of compliance.
The list of people eligible for seasonal vaccination against Covid-19 includes the elderly, healthcare professionals, nursing home users and workers, prisoners, pregnant women, patients at risk, firefighters transporting patients and healthcare providers.
Covid-19 is a pandemic respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a type of virus discovered in China in late 2019 that has adopted several variants and subvariants, some more contagious than others.
Source: DN
