Booster COVID-19 shot likely for all Italians in 2022 – health adviser to paper

FILE PHOTO: A health worker administers the third dose of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine to a patient deemed to be ‘fragile’, as vaccinations jump in Italy after the government made inoculation mandatory for all workers, in Rome, Italy, September 21, 2021. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

MILAN (Reuters) – All Italians will likely be offered a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines in 2022 and after that recurring boosters will be needed, Walter Ricciardi, a health ministry adviser, told daily Il Messaggero in an interview published on Wednesday.

Earlier this month Italy’s medicines agency AIFA approved the so-called booster shot for those likely to have weaker protection from the conventional two-dose inoculation schemes – immunocompromised people, those over 80 years old, nursing home residents and front-line health workers frequently exposed to the virus.

“As for the general population, we still have to wait,” Ricciardi told the paper. “It is presumable, however, that from next year a booster dose will have to be taken by everyone, with a certain regularity.”

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