The Macau government has announced that it will make a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine available to the entire population starting Friday, with priority given to the most vulnerable people, namely the elderly and immunosuppressed patients.
The New Coronavirus Type Contingency Coordination Center revealed that the second booster dose of the vaccine can be scheduled as of this Thursday.For the highest risk groups, the center has decided to reduce the minimum interval between the third and fourth doses of the vaccine from six months to three months.
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These groups include elderly people over 59 years old, those with moderate or severe autoimmune disease over 11 years old (including cancer, people who have had transplants, AIDS patients) and individuals over 17 years old living in nursing homes or rehabilitation institutions.
For the general population, the minimum interval between the third and fourth doses of the vaccine remains half a year. Macau has been administering mRNA vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer and inactivated vaccines from China’s Sinopharm. The New Coronavirus Type Contingency Coordination Center recommends those who have received two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to choose the mRNA vaccine as a booster dose, as “mixed vaccination (…) may achieve better protective effect.”
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The statement recalls that all six deaths during the recent outbreak were recorded in the chronically ill elderly, some of whom were unvaccinated.
The goal of making a fourth dose of the covid-19 vaccine available is to “minimize the risk of another large-scale outbreak in Macau,” the center said.
Macau, which had recorded about 80 covid-19 infections since January 2020, was hit in June by the worst outbreak it has faced since the pandemic began, which infected 1,821 people, most of the cases asymptomatic, and caused the deaths of six elderly people diagnosed with chronic illnesses.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
