Elderly people over 60 years of age and pregnant women were included in the target audience for the routine vaccine against covid-19 in the National Immunization Calendar. The recommendation from the Ministry of Health, adopted by the state of Rio de Janeiro, according to the State Department of Health of Rio de Janeiro (SES) “is based on the availability of different vaccine formulations, adapted to the needs of different age groups and groups special, with emphasis on the rational and strategic use of these immunobiologicals”.
With the new guidance, elderly people should take booster doses every 6 months. In the case of pregnant women, the recommendation is that they be immunized with each pregnancy, regardless of the number of doses they have already received.
To meet the schedule, SES distributed, this week, 35 thousand doses to the state’s 92 municipalities to adhere to the new routine.
“It is important to reinforce immunization to protect those who need it most, and to ensure that the state’s new citizens are safe against Covid,” said the Secretary of State for Health, Cláudia Mello, in a statement.
According to the secretariat, the vaccine against Covid-19, which will be used, has a composition derived from an ancestral lineage of SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine will be updated periodically to ensure effectiveness against new variants.
SES also highlighted that this is not the first time that this vaccine technology has been adopted. It was previously used with the SpikeVax vaccine, which became popularly known as XBB, in reference to the latest highly circulating variant.
“With the arrival of this new vaccine in the routine of the National Vaccination Calendar, we are able to sustain the reduction of serious cases and deaths from Covid-19 in the state of Rio de Janeiro”, assessed the Undersecretary of Surveillance and Primary Health Care, Mário Sergio Ribeiro.
Timeline
In addition to the elderly over 60 years of age, who must receive a dose of vaccine every 6 months, regardless of the number of previous doses received, and pregnant women, who need to be vaccinated at any time during pregnancy, and in each pregnancy, regardless of the amount of Previous doses received, children between 6 months and 5 years of age have already been covered since January 2024.
“For other priority groups aged 5 or over, special vaccination against Covid-19 will be considered”, informed the ministry.
SES also recommends that municipalities “redouble their efforts in disseminating vaccines and carry out actions to ensure homogeneous vaccination coverage throughout the state”.
