The Ministry of Health has announced that COVID-19 booster doses will now be available to persons five months after they have been fully inoculated.
This was disclosed by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, during his daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday, where he stated that booster doses are now widely recommended since immunity begins to wane six months after first being fully inoculated. This means that the efficacy of ‘manufactured’ antibodies begins to drop and they are no longer very effective. “However what they have found, is that if between 5 to 6 months you are given a third dose, which is the booster shot, then the immunity remains quite high and so it is recommended that you get your primary series and then you do a booster shot,” he said.
The minister stated that the decision was made to have the booster doses now at each five-month mark so that immunity remains fairly high and does not start dropping before the booster is administered.
“We are offering that booster shot now at 5 months so that before the immunity starts dropping, we are able to give people the booster dose at the appropriate time so that immunity remains fairly constant and fairly high and that’s why we have moved from six months to now doing it at five months”, he added.
Anthony mentioned that some changes were also made as it relates to what booster persons can receive. He said that persons who were fully inoculated with the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines would be getting the Pfizer as a booster. For persons who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson, he said a second dose of the same is recommended after two months and for persons who received the Pfizer as their primary series they will also get a third dose of the same after five months. As it relates to those who were fully vaccinated with Sputnik V, he mentioned that those persons will have the option to choose between having the Johnson & Johnson or the Pfizer vaccine as a booster.
