People 65 years of age and older may receive another dose of updated vaccine to protect against severe illness from COVID-19, Canada’s advisory body on immunizations said Friday.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released guidance this spring on how to provide an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccines to Americans at higher risk for severe illness from the pandemic virus.
“Discretionary” dosage advice also applies to adults living in nursing homes and similar senior centers.
Dawn Bowdish, a professor at McMaster University and Canada Research Chair in Aging and Immunity, has been following long-term care residents as part of her COVID-19 studies.
“I actually continued to vaccinate the most frail seniors,” Bowdish said.
People six months of age or older who are severely immunocompromised due to some other illness or treatment, such as organ transplant recipients, would likely also be presented with a spring dose.
The organization said its recommendations continue with the goals announced last February of “minimizing serious illness and death while minimizing social disruption” due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition from the crisis phase to long-term management.
In general, NACI recommends an interval of six months from the last COVID-19 vaccine dose.
NACI’s spring recommendations come as key fitness officials have said low vaccination rates compared to more recent versions of the virus cause COVID-19 and influenza to be putting pressure on fitness systems this winter.
In the U. S. , several European countries and other parts of the world, there have been reports of an increase in hospitalizations similar to respiratory infections in recent weeks. Death rates have also risen among older adults in some areas, though well below the peak of the COVID pandemic.
Spaniards have reinstated the requirement to wear a mask in health centres, as have some hospital networks in the United States and Canada.
“A lot of other people want serious anti-flu, anti-COVID medical care, when we can save them,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the World Health Organization (WHO).
He cited “incredibly low” flu and COVID vaccination rates in many countries this season, as the world tries to move beyond the pandemic and its restrictions.
Governments have struggled to address the ongoing dangers posed by COVID and the benefits of vaccination since they flagged a global public health emergency in May 2023, infectious disease experts and health officials said.
Only 19.4 per cent of U.S. adults have received this season’s COVID vaccine based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s National Immunization Survey, despite a recommendation that all adults get an updated shot to protect against serious illness.
That compares with about 17 percent of adults who won the bivalent booster in the 2022-2023 season, based on real-world vaccine knowledge reported to the CDC across states.
In Canada, federal figures show that 15 per cent of the population aged five and older had received an updated COVID-19 vaccine as of Dec. 3.
The organization said the national vaccination policy last spring was about 11 percent among people 65 and older.
Bowdish shares concerns of health officials elsewhere about low vaccine uptake.
“I’m concerned that it’s going to stay the same, 12 to 15 percent next spring and fall. “
In Europe, the new COVID vaccines are recommended only for high-risk groups, such as the elderly and immunocompromised people. Among those groups, the WHO says there is 100 percent coverage.
COVID rates are also surging in the Southern Hemisphere during the summer, the WHO said. It’s a seasonal virus.
The vaccines are still very effective at preventing serious illness, even if they do not block infection, experts said.
With reporting by Reuters and CBC’s Lauren Pelley
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