(Belgium) The Vaccination Task Force is examining whether it is possible to reduce the interval between two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to eight weeks for everyone who has already had a first dose. Those who received a first dose after May 31 will receive their second dose after eight weeks, but those who received the first dose before that had to wait twelve weeks. “Shorting that waiting time would be a logical measure, but it is certainly not an obvious thing,” says Dirk Ramaekers of the task force. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that.”
Those who received a first dose of AstraZeneca before May 31 originally had to wait twelve weeks for the second dose. Since then, that interval has been reduced to eight weeks. However, this means that a number of at-risk patients, who were the first to be treated, have to wait longer for complete protection against the corona virus than those who were vaccinated later. One of the reasons for keeping that interval so long was the danger that insufficient doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be available. Now that 862,400 doses of the vaccine are expected in the first three weeks of July, that danger seems to have passed. “With the promised deliveries, it would indeed be possible to give that second dose earlier,” says Professor Raemakers. “But that will certainly not be an obvious thing. We will do everything we can to ensure that and we are technically figuring out how we could do that.” “The demand is clearly huge,” said Pierre Van Damme, epidemiologist and member of the task force. “People have listened carefully to what has been said in the media about the importance of that second dose in protecting against the virus, and against the new variants.” (Belgium)
Those who received a first dose of AstraZeneca before May 31 originally had to wait twelve weeks for the second dose. Since then, that interval has been reduced to eight weeks. However, this means that a number of at-risk patients, who were the first to be treated, have to wait longer for complete protection against the corona virus than those who were vaccinated later. One of the reasons for keeping that interval so long was the danger that insufficient doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be available. Now that 862,400 doses of the vaccine are expected in the first three weeks of July, that danger seems to have passed. “With the promised deliveries, it would indeed be possible to give that second dose earlier,” says Professor Raemakers. “But that will certainly not be an obvious thing. We will do everything we can to ensure that and we are technically figuring out how we could do that.” “The demand is clearly huge,” said Pierre Van Damme, epidemiologist and member of the task force. “People have listened carefully to what has been said in the media about the importance of that second dose in protecting against the virus, and against the new variants.” (Belgium)
–
