Health authorizes 4th dose for people aged 50 and over and health workers

The Ministry of Health released this Saturday (4) the fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 50 and over and health workers of all ages.

The fourth dose should be given four months after the third. For this, municipalities will be able to use Pfizer, Janssen or AstraZeneca immunizers, regardless of the vaccines that the person has taken before.

Some cities —such as Brasília, Teresina, Manaus and Macapá— were already applying the fourth dose in the group aged 50 or over. With the technical note of the Ministry of Health, the guidance becomes valid throughout the country.

This Saturday (4), the government of the state of São Paulo reported that the application of the fourth dose will start on Monday (6). The State Department of Health said it will make new batches of vaccine available at the beginning of the week, as requested by the municipalities and delivered by the ministry.

In one of the technical notes published this Saturday (4), the Ministry of Health stated that “non-pharmacological measures (distancing and use of masks) should be encouraged in the current epidemiological moment”.

The moving average of cases continues to grow sharply. This Friday (3), the moving average reached 31 thousand infections per day, a value 112% higher than two weeks ago. The average of deaths, in turn, remains stable.

In the documents, the ministry lists different reasons for the application of a second booster dose. The folder points out that vaccines have “demonstrated a reduction in protection over time, more evident in more advanced age groups”.

The technical area also says that it is necessary to consider the possibility that Covid-19 is a seasonal disease, as well as other respiratory viruses. Colds and flu, for example, are more common and tend to get worse in the cold.

Finally, the notes emphasize that there is “high transmission of the disease in many countries, with an increase in severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths, mainly observed in places where vaccination coverage has not reached ideal levels”.

The documents are signed by the extraordinary secretary for coping with Covid, Rosana Leite de Melo, and by the program director of the extraordinary secretary for coping with Covid, Danilo de Souza Vasconcelos.

The release of the fourth dose for the group aged 50 or over had been announced by the minister of health, Marcelo Queiroga, on Thursday (2) after an event by the folder.

Until then, the fourth dose (or second booster dose) had been released by the federal government only for people over 60 and immunosuppressed — people undergoing cancer treatment, transplant recipients, hemodialysis patients and HIV-positive people, for example.

The Ministry of Health stated that “it follows the equitable and proportional distribution of Covid-19 vaccines throughout the country, according to the needs of each federative unit”.

According to the consortium of press vehicles, 43.6% of the population took the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine. 85% of Brazilians took at least one dose and 77%, two doses.