In the newest update of Spain’s Vaccine Strategy against Covid-19 announced on Tuesday, the Health Ministry now recommends postponing the third dose of the Covid vaccine until five months after recovery from Covid-19.

“Current evidence shows that having a SARS-CoV-2 infection, after having the complete primary vaccination schedule, leads to the development of a more powerful and broader immune response in terms of neutralising other variants of the virus, compared to the immune response observed in those who had only had a Covid-19 infection or who received only two doses of the vaccine,” the document stated.

As most of the Covid-19 infections in Spain are now due to the Omicron variant, the four-week wait for under-65s has now been changed.

“In people who received the complete vaccination schedule who later have symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, the interval between infection and administration of the booster dose will be a minimum of 4 weeks, but its administration is recommended five months after the diagnosis of the infection”, it continued.

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What the experts say

The secretary of the Spanish Society of Immunology, Carmen Cámara said: “We must ask ourselves what we achieve with third and fourth doses. There is clear pressure from pharmaceutical companies”. 

In an interview on the program Aqui Cuní on SER Catalunya, Cámara also said that people who have been infected with the Covid omicron variant and were vaccinated, are the ones who have the best protection. 

“They have the best possible immunity, which is the hybrid immunity, which multiplies that of vaccines by almost 100 and also gives you a much broader repertoire. Whoever gets infected with omicron produces neutralising antibodies and memory cells against the rest of the variants, meaning they have the best immunity that can be achieved so far”, she continued.

What about children?

In the case of children aged between five and 11 who were infected with Covid-19 before they received their vaccine, a single dose will be given eight weeks after the diagnosis.

If the infection is diagnosed after the first dose, on the other hand, the second dose will be administered from eight weeks after the diagnosis of the infection, maintaining the interval of eight weeks with respect to the first dose.