New Delhi: France recommended on Friday that adults receive a COVID-19 booster vaccination three months after their initial jabs, news agency AFP reported.
This recommendation subverts the current five-month guideline for optimally fighting the Omicron variant.
According to AFP, the French health authority HAS, which advises the government in the fight against the coronavirus, published the recommendation. It has advised that the booster rollout be expanded to include adolescents who are considered at risk.
HAS cited recent studies as the reason behind the three-month reduction, which showed that vaccines against non-severe symptomatic forms of the Omicron variant are 80 percent effective for one to two months, but their effectiveness has been limited. lose more quickly. previous variants.
Effectiveness drops to just 34 percent four months after vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine, but increases to 75 percent two weeks after a booster dose, as reported by AFP.
Read also | Omicron 50-70% less likely to cause hospitalization than other covid variants: UK study
France pushes for vaccination amid rising COVID cases
Earlier this week, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that omicron The Associated Press reported that the infection is spreading rapidly and the coronavirus variant will become the major infection in the last days of 2021.
Speaking to BFMTV, he said that the government’s primary effort to contain the spread of COVID is a strong immunization drive, which now includes immunization of children in the age group of 5-11 years.
Meanwhile, the government has ruled out imposing additional restrictions on public life.
It’s time to start vaccinating children, Olivier Veran told a morning news program that opened 350 immunization centers across the country to start giving young children the shot from Wednesday.
As per norms, a parent’s consent is required for children to be vaccinated, and a parent has to be present when they get a shot, the AP reported.
According to government data updated on December 6, more than a thousand children in every 100,000 children aged 6-10 years are infected with the coronavirus.
The Health Minister said that in France, 145 children were hospitalized due to serious illness due to Kovid-19 and 27 children are being treated in intensive care units. He did not disclose the age of the children.
France also reported 16,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as 60 percent of the country’s ICU beds are occupied by coronavirus patients.
Given the rising infections, the French government is trying to push for legislation requiring vaccination to enter any restaurant and many other public places.
According to the AP report, Health Minister Olivier Veran revealed that officials are considering implementing identity card checks with vaccine passes in view of the large number of fake health passes, citing media reports discovered in the past weeks. Huh.
The French government appears to have passed a law by January 15 that requires vaccinations to enter restaurants and many public places.
Currently, a health pass is required to enter all such places in France, but people can obtain a pass with a vaccination certificate, a negative virus test or proof of recent recovery from COVID-19 .
Ahead of the holiday season, France closed nightclubs and banned New Year’s Eve fireworks and other mass end-of-life celebrations, including concerts. This
It is an evening sacrificed for a good cause, the health minister had said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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