Stockholm, Sweden

The health agencies of the European Union (EU) recommended this Monday a second booster dose of the anti-Covid vaccine to all those over 60 years of age, instead of only for those over 80 years of age as was the case until now, due to the “vast wave” of infections that the Old Continent is experiencing.

“I call on Member States to immediately offer a second booster dose to everyone over 60 years of age, as well as to vulnerable people, and I call on all people who are eligible to come forward to be vaccinated,” said the commissioner. European Health, Stella Kyriakides, in a joint statement from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), quoted AFP.

In April, the two agencies had already recommended this second booster dose – in most cases a fourth dose – for those over 80, warning that an extension to those over 60 could follow. Europe is facing “an increase in covid cases but also an upward trend in the number of hospitalizations or emergency admissions in several countries, mainly as a result of the BA.5 subvariant of omicron”, stressed the director of the ECDC, Andrea Ammon, cited in the statement. According to the latest data from the World Health Organization for its Europe area, which covers some 50 countries, the number of covid cases has been on the rise since the end of May.

New daily cases exceeded 675,000 on Friday, thus returning to their level of early April after the strong winter wave. According to the ECDC and the EMA, there is instead “for the moment no clear evidence that justifies giving a second booster dose to those under 60 years of age who are not at high risk of developing a severe form” of Covid-19.