In the colder months, when people spend more time indoors, more corona infections can be expected again. The National Vaccination Commission (NIG) has now issued a new advice: anyone aged twelve and older should have a fourth suture no earlier than four to six months after the third dose.
Minister of Health Johannes Rauch emphasized at the press conference about the new vaccination advice: “We got through the summer well.” This was certainly not easy to estimate, which would have made the abolition of the quarantine a point of contention. “However, we will not remain at this level,” Rauch warned, referring to vaccination as the most important measure in the fight against the pathogen.
Children under the age of 12 must be vaccinated three times before school starts
The NIG sees it that way and changed the vaccination advice a few days before school started. The fourth vaccination is now recommended for everyone over the age of twelve with a corresponding interval from the last vaccination, depending on age, from four to six months after completion of the primary vaccination course (third vaccination), explains vaccination expert Herwig Kollaritsch. For children aged five to eleven, the primary vaccination course – which consists of three vaccinations – must be completed by the time school starts at the latest. No booster vaccination is currently recommended in this age group.
A time interval of up to six months between the third and fourth vaccination is recommended because a stronger immune response can be expected. “If these are too close together, it won’t yield much,” explains Kollaritsch. It also clarified that it was “unreasonable to wait for variant vaccines”. The currently available vaccines would also provide broad spectrum vaccination protection against the currently circulating variants.
Mask duty will probably come again
But other measures will probably also be taken in the near future: “It will probably be sensible and necessary in the autumn to make face masks mandatory again in certain areas such as public transport or supermarkets,” said the Minister of Health. In September, modified variant vaccines will be delivered to Austria. As early as Thursday (tomorrow), Rauch expects the EU medicine agency EMA to confirm the approval of the first bivalent vaccines. The vaccine specially adapted for the omicron variant BA.1 is expected first, followed a few weeks later by the vaccine adapted for the current BA.4/BA.5 variant.
Source: Krone
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