While France could be on the threshold of an eighth epidemic wave of Covid-19, the High Authority for Health (HAS) is coming back to the charge on the importance of vaccination. In its opinion on the vaccine strategy published on Tuesday September 20, the HAS “confirms its recommendation to administer an additional dose of vaccine (…) to people at risk of having a severe form of the disease as well as to those around them and to healthcare professionals in the fall”.
Bivalent vaccines
For this booster dose, the High Authority also suggests favoring vaccines targeting specific variants recently approved by the European Medicines Agency. “The clinical efficacy expected for these new bivalent vaccines is at least equivalent or even superior to that of the original vaccines”, justifies the HAS.
In recent weeks, three new vaccines have been approved in the European Union. Two of them target the original form of the coronavirus that appeared in Wuhan in 2019 as well as the Omicron BA.4 and Omicron BA.5 variants (which represents nearly 95% of contaminations in France). The latter is designed to act specifically on the Omicron BA.1 variant.
However, due to the epidemic context, the HAS stresses that people over 60 and people exposed to the risk of a severe form of Covid-19 and whose first recall is old “can carry out the second booster with a monovalent vaccine without waiting for the availability of bivalent vaccines to do so”.
Seasonal flu campaign
Since the beginning of September, the epidemic monitoring indicators have been on the rise. As of September 16, the incidence rate has thus increased by 57% over one week, with 281.4 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people. Monday, September 19, the number of new contaminations stood at 5,219, or 14% more compared to the previous Monday. Highlighting figures for the HAS “the importance of maintaining barrier gestures and social distancing measures” for anyone at risk.
The High Authority for Health also recommends in its opinion the importance of carrying out the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in conjunction with that of seasonal flu. According to the health institution, “injection of the two vaccines on the same day, if performed at two separate injection sites, is possible. » The flu vaccination campaign will begin on October 18.