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COVID-19 VACCINES

Denmark recommends Covid-19 booster jabs to all adults

Everyone over the age of 18 in Denmark will be offered a booster vaccination against Covid-19.

Denmark confirmed November 25th it will offer a Covid-19 booster vaccination to all adults over 18.
Denmark confirmed November 25th it will offer a Covid-19 booster vaccination to all adults over 18. File photo: Claus Fisker/Ritzau Scanpix

The recommendation is an update to the earlier policy in which primarily vulnerable and elderly groups were offered the booster or ‘third’ coronavirus jab.

Invitations for revaccination will be offered to all people over 18 who have previously been fully vaccinated with two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, or one in the case of the single-dose jab from Johnson & Johnson.

The booster will be offered six months after the date of the final dose of the original vaccination and will take the form of an invitation sent to Denmark residents’ secure digital mail, via the borger.dk or eBoks.dk platforms. This mirrors the procedure for the original vaccination programme.

“The Danish Health Authority recommends that the principle of revaccination six months after completed vaccination is extended so all adults over 18 are offered a third jab against Covid-19,” the health authority said in a statement.

Some 650,000 people in Denmark have so far received a booster against the coronavirus, around 11.2 percent of the overall population.

The Ministry of Health earlier said it aims to increase vaccination capacity regionally and expects to be close to its target of 300,000 vaccinations weekly from next week.

Revaccination of over 65s is considered by the Danish Health Authority to have “no risk of new serious side effects with a third dose”, the authority said last month.

Younger people may experience stronger reactions including “pain at the injection point, mild fever, discomfort and headache,” the authority also said.

“We can see that the possible side effects of a third jab are largely the same as with the second jab,” Danish Health Authority deputy director Helene Probst said in Thursday’s statement.

“This also means that we will see rare cases of myocarditis — inflammation of the heart — when we revaccinate younger cohorts, especially young men, just as we have seen some cases of this after another the second dose,” Probst said.

“But there are very few cases, typically with mild outcomes and with good treatment options,” she added.

READ ALSO: Denmark to give booster Covid-19 jab six months after vaccination

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HEALTH

Can you get a covid vaccine in Denmark if you’re not in the at-risk groups?

If you’re not in one of the ‘high risk’ categories, a covid booster can be hard to come by in Denmark.

Can you get a covid vaccine in Denmark if you’re not in the at-risk groups?

A growing body of research indicates that keeping your covid vaccination up to date decreases your risk of long covid—a range of cardiovascular, neurological and respiratory symptoms that can be debilitating. But accessing the vaccine booster is not straightforward in Denmark if you are not within one of the ‘risk groups’ for the national annual booster scheme.

Ahead of winter 2023, the Danish government made a significant change to its covid vaccination policy. From November 2022 until October 2023, anyone who wanted to get vaccinated could do so at the government vaccination centres for a modest fee.

But in October 2023, the Danish government said it was bowing out of the elective booster game, since “vaccines will be sold on the private market under normal market conditions,” the Danish Health Ministry (Sundhedsministeriet) wrote.

READ ALSO: Covid-19 no longer given special status in Denmark

But it seems pharmacies and private clinics didn’t step in to fill the void the way the Danish government expected—although public health websites linked out to the Apotek pharmacy chain as a resource for voluntary covid vaccination, Apotek pharmacy confirmed to the Local Denmark via email that they did not offer paid covid vaccines this year.

As of February 5th, the only option for a voluntary covid booster in the Greater Copenhagen metropolitan area is through Copenhagen Medical, a private clinic in Sankt Annæ Plads near Nyhavn that offers a range of travel vaccines and tests. The Pfizer booster costs 920 kroner.

Other companies offer paid vaccinations, but the closest clinics are at least 30 km away (for instance, the Danske Lægers Vaccinations Service offers paid covid vaccines at their Roskilde and Hillerød locations).

The public covid vaccine campaign ended on January 15th, by when 1.1 million people had received a Covid vaccine during the 2023-2024 season in Denmark, according to the State Serum Institute, Denmark’s infectious disease agency.

SSI told the Local that it is unable to determine how many of those were through the public vaccination programme and how many were paid for at private clinics.

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