Brazil Minister of Health Says 3rd Dose of Covid Vaccine Will Be Available September 15
Extra dose will be available for elderly and immunosuppressed
The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, announced that the third dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus will begin to be administered in the elderly and in immunosuppressed people starting September 15th. All immunosuppressed ( people with transplants for example) who have already taken the second dose of the vaccine 21 days ago will be able to receive the booster from the second half of September.
In the case of the elderly, they had to have taken the second dose more than six months ago. The extra immunization will cover people over 70 years old. The first to receive the doses will be those over 80 years of age. The vaccine used for the booster dose will be Pfizer.
The date was chosen because, by then, the entire population over 18 in Brazil will have already been immunized with at least one dose.
The decision on administering a booster dose to the entire population will only be made after the conclusion of a study that the Ministry of Health is carrying out in partnership with the University of Oxford and with the support of the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and the D'Or Institute for Research and Teaching. It should be finished in October.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon