Booster dose to be administered to over-20 immunocompromised persons

Administration of the third dose for persons over the age of 20 who are immunocompromised or highly vulnerable due to comorbidities will commence today.

The Health Ministry yesterday issued guidelines for this group, stating the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be administered as a booster at least one month after the second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.

Persons over the age of 20 who are eligible for the third dose include immunocompromised persons due to disease or treatment, patients with chronic kidney disease, solid organ, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients, patients with cancer, whether or not on treatment, and patients with asplenia and splenic dysfunction.

Patients with any other immunosuppressed state will also be given priority based on the recommendation or referral from the treating physician. Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccines were administered to 23,013 persons on Thursday and 63.68% of the country’s population has received both vaccine doses to date.

Our World in Data states that the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 73.94% of the population.

Of the country’s population over 20 years, 93.6% has received both vaccine doses.

The Epidemiology Unit states that 15,897,388 persons have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 13,690,775 persons have received the second dose as well. The third dose has been administered to 163,789 persons, with 18,460 persons receiving the booster dose on Thursday. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is being administered as the booster and persons over 60 years are eligible for the booster shot.

On Thursday, the first dose of Pfizer was administered to 2,999 persons and the second dose was administered to 416 persons. In total, 1,520,001 persons have received the first dose of Pfizer and 453,202 persons have received the second dose of the vaccine.

The first dose of Sinopharm has been administered to 11,933,845 persons and the second dose has been administered to 10,880,468 persons. On Thursday, 227 persons received the first dose of Sinopharm and 911 persons received the second dose. The first dose of AstraZeneca has been administered to 1,479,631 persons, of which 1,418,593 persons have received the second dose as well.

The Epidemiology Unit states that 804,801 persons have received the first dose of Moderna and 782,730 persons have received the second dose of the vaccine.

The first dose of Sputnik V has been administered to 159,110 persons and 155,782 persons have received the second dose of Sputnik V.