The German vaccine advisory committee, known as Stiko, recommended this Thursday (18) the third dose of vaccine against Covid-19 for all people over 18 years.
The measure responds to the new wave of the pandemic in the country, which saw the number of new cases of the disease break a record this Wednesday (17). Prime Minister Angela Merkel described the situation as “dramatic”.
Booster doses must be administered with a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, as are those from Pfizer and Moderna, and only six months after the second dose has been taken, the committee detailed. Also according to the collegiate, a reduction of the interval to five months can be considered in individual cases.
Also on Thursday, the Bundestag (German Chamber of Deputies) must vote on new proposals for restrictive measures to curb the advance of the coronavirus. The country surpassed the mark of 60 thousand new cases daily for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The number, already worrying, is considered underreported by specialists. Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute for disease control in the country, said the pandemic situation has never been as serious as it is now and that the actual number of cases should double or even triple what is officially recorded. , according to information from German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Just over 67% of the country’s population has a complete vaccination schedule, and since the beginning of the health crisis, 98,500 deaths from Covid have been registered.
.
