The Government has decided to extend the administration of a second booster dose of the anti-Covid vaccine, following the advice of the scientific authorities – High Health Authority and Council for the Orientation of the Vaccine Strategy. He made this decision in an “epidemiological context that continues to be worrying, with highly contagious variants,” the Ministry of Health explained on Wednesday.

The Government has decided to extend the second reminder “from now on to adults aged 18 to 60 years identified as at risk of a severe form of Covid, to pregnant women and to people living in the environment of vulnerable or immunosuppressed people”, detailed. at a press conference.

17 million French eligible for the second booster dose

This extension affects around five million people, bringing the number of French eligible for this second booster dose to around 17 million. Until now, only those over 60 and immunosuppressed people had access to it, that is, about 12 million eligible people. Of these, around 4 million received a second booster.

This additional booster dose is possible from three months after the 1st booster for the most frail (over 80 years of age, nursing home residents, severely immunocompromised). For others, it can be given six months after the first booster.

And “in case of infection between the first and the second booster, we can make a second booster injection three months after the infection,” specifies the Ministry of Health.

The entire population planned for the fall is not remembered

When asked if the government planned to offer a second reminder to the entire population in the fall, the ministry replied “clearly not”. “Today, there is no likely scenario that would extend the second recall to everyone, although caution should be exercised,” he said.

He also gave the vaccination figures with the vaccine from the American laboratory Novavax, based on classic technology. “We expected significant figures, this is not what we observed,” the ministry conceded. “Only 28,000 doses of this vaccine have been injected since March, it is very few but it is still a useful vaccine,” he judged.