The second booster dose of vaccine against Covid-19 will be open to people aged 60 and over, whose last injection dates back more than six months, Olivier Véran announced on Thursday April 7. This 2e booster dose will not be mandatory, said the Minister of Health on RTL radio. Until now, this dose was reserved for people aged 80 and over, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced in mid-March in the face of the rebound of the pandemic.
Based on a recommendation from the High Authority for Health, Olivier Véran argued:
We know that a booster injection, when you are 60 years old and over, reduces the risk of hospitalization, resuscitation and death by 80%. Even if this risk is lower today than it was with previous variants and when there was no vaccination coverage, there is a residual risk. We can reduce it by four, so we propose it.
Reduce hospital impact
This measure concerns 500,000 French people aged 60 and over who are six months or more away from their last injection, explained Olivier Véran:
In times of circulation of the virus, it is as much a reduction of a hospital impact. We know that our hospitals need to breathe.
European Union health authorities on Wednesday gave the green light to a second booster dose of Moderna and Pfizer’s Covid vaccines for people aged 80 and over on Wednesday, but deemed it premature to issue a recommendation for the older population. young.
However, more and more countries are opening the 2e booster dose – which corresponds to the fourth dose – to populations aged under 80, in a context of epidemic rebound.
The Greek health authorities thus announced on Tuesday a fourth dose for “people over the age of 60, especially in the presence of an underlying disease”. Australia will do the same for those over 65.
In addition, concerning the first round of the presidential election held in France on Sunday, the Minister of Health confirmed that people who tested positive for Covid-19 “can go and vote safely”. “There will be masks, hydroalcoholic gel available, they can come with a pen, we know how to do it”underlined Olivier Véran.