At least six cities in the state of Rio de Janeiro have started the application of the third booster dose or the fifth dose of the vaccine against Covid-19. The capital of Rio de Janeiro provides the immunizer only for the elderly and people with comorbidities who received the second booster dose (DR2) more than 10 months ago. Magé, Niterói, Barra Mansa, Nova Iguaçu and Duque de Caxias also started making the immunizer available in recent days.
In Magé and Barra Mansa, the immunizing agent can be applied to all people over 18 years of age and at least four months after receiving the last dose. In Niterói, a minimum time of ten months is required. In Duque de Caxias and Nova Iguaçu, the fifth dose is intended only for immunocompromised patients, such as transplant and cancer patients.
According to a Technical Note released by the Ministry of Health in August, DR3 should be performed four months after DR2 with immunizing agents from AstraZeneca, Janssen and Pfizer. According to the folder, the immunizer should be given only to immunocompromised patients.
The State Department of Health of Rio de Janeiro reported that it sent the note from the Ministry to the city halls of the state.
The implementation of DR3 comes at a time of high Covid-19 cases due to the new subvariant of Ômicron, BQ.1. For the vice president of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, Alberto Chebabo, the ideal would be for the third booster dose to be made with the bivalent vaccine, which offers protection against the original strain of Covid-19 and Ômicron.
This technology would be more efficient, he said, to protect against the new subvariant. The doctor also highlights the importance of DR1 and DR2, which have low levels of coverage in his assessment.
“The five-dose regimen is indicated for immunosuppressed patients, but for the general population, it is the two doses plus R1 and R2. This bivalent is being made in Europe and the United States. So much so that this increase did not have much impact in these places, because the booster dose there is better than here”, opined Chebabo.
The bivalent vaccine has not yet had its registration approved in Brazil by the Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). In a note, the Ministry of Health reported that the Ministry carefully monitors studies and technological innovations related to Covid-19 and that the current contract with suppliers includes the delivery of vaccines with updated strains, as long as they are approved by Anvisa.
Source: CNN Brasil
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