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VACCINES

Denmark to give booster Covid vaccines to those with ‘weakened immune systems’

The Danish Health Authority has published a list of which citizens will be prioritised for a third, booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine, with some 50,000 people likely to be eligible.

Published: 30 August 2021 14:48 CEST
Denmark to give booster Covid vaccines to those with 'weakened immune systems'
Those receiving regular dialysis will be among those who will be contacted for third doses in the next few week. Photo: Anna Frodesiak/Wikimedia Commons

In a press release issued on Monday, the Danish Health Authority said that those in the categories chosen would receive an invitation in the e-Boks digital postbox in the same way as they had for their first and second doses. 

“The vast majority of people with a weakened immune system are expected to be well protected against a serious course of Covid-19 when they have been vaccinated,” Helene Probst, the authority’s deputy director said in the release. 

“However, people with a severely weakened immune system have a very reduced or no effect of the vaccine. Therefore, they will now be offered a third dose to boost their immune response and thus protect them from a serious infection with Covid-19.” 

She said that all of the patients concerned would already be undergoing long-term treatment and so be in contact with a hospital department, who would then recommend them for another jab. 

The patients eligible are primarily: 

  • patients with certain types of malignant blood and bone marrow diseases
  • patients who have had organ transplants,
  • patients on dialysis
  • patients who have been treated with special immunosuppressive drugs
  • patients who have received chemotherapy during 2021 

“We have made a detailed list of exactly which citizens are covered by the new offer, so hopefully the vast majority of citizens can see for themselves whether they are covered,” Probst said. 

She said that no one should contact their local GP over receiving a third dose, although she said those being treated by specialists for any of the conditions covered should contact their hospital doctor if they do not receive an invite within “a few weeks”, and should also bring it up next time they come in for a check-up or treatment.

She said the vaccinations would take place at existing treatment centres across Denmark. 

“The vaccination itself will take place in the vaccination centres, where you will be vaccinated with a 3rd dose mRNA vaccine from either BioNTec-Pfizer or Moderna,” she said.

No one will be given a third dose until at least a month after their second dose, and ideally not more than none months after it. 

The authority is still considering whether elderly people in Denmark who were vaccinated in January and February should also receive a third dose, but said it would not give third doses on this scale until one or more of the vaccines was approved for a third dose by the European Medicines Agency. 

The authority has published a detailed set of guidelines laying out which patients should get a third dose. 

They include these conditions: 

  • acute leukemia or chronic myelomonocytic leukemia
  • myelodysplastic syndrome
  • myelomatosis
  • Lymphoma
  • myelofibrosis
  • aplastic anemia
  • T-cell Large granular lymphocytic leukemia 
  • recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants 
  • primary immunodeficiency
  • HIV infection with pronounced immune deficiency (CD4 < 200)
  • cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in 2021
  • patients who have had organ transplants, bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants, and artificial heart pumps
  • those undergoing Hemodialysis or peritonealdialysis 

It also includes people taking the following medications: 

  • Rituximab
  • Ocrelizumab
  • Alemtuzumab
  • ATG
  • Ciclosporin
  • Tacrolimus
  • Mycophenolate
  • Immunglobulin substitution
  • Sphingosin-1-phosphat receptor inhibitor 

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

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Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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