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Who will be included in France’s new Covid vaccine recommendation?
A new vaccine strategy is due to be announced this month
The French health authority la Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) is set to issue a new vaccine strategy at the end of February.
The strategy is expected to recommend an annual Covid jab, as it does for flu jabs. This recommendation will only apply to certain population categories, however.
“We will probably not suggest another vaccination for the general population,” a member of HAS said.
The recommended groups for the annual vaccination are likely to include:
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At-risk people
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Older people
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Patients suffering from underlying conditions.
“The question is to know if we will require something from autumn or whether we should recommend another vaccination from now (on),” the HAS member added.
The recommendations are set to come after other countries, including the UK, began advising people to have both their flu and Covid vaccinations at the same appointment.
France will doubtlessly include recommendations to do the same, the HAS member said.
The Commission technique des vaccinations (CTV) is currently studying this point.
What is the waiting time between vaccinations?
Covid-19 vaccinations are currently available to everybody as long as they wait enough time between their last jab and the next vaccination.
For people in good health, at least six months must have passed since a previous Covid vaccination.
This drops to three months for people over the age of 80, elderly care home residents, and people who are immunosuppressed.
In December, the Health Ministry also specified: “In case of recent infection of Covid, we need to ensure a gap of three months between infection and the booster jab.”
Extra booster jabs opened to everyone in December 2022.
Covid is now at relatively low levels in France. Around 5,000 cases are being recorded everyday, and there are now just over 13,000 people in hospital because of the virus.
Read more: Covid: Daily updates on the situation in France
Rules also changed for people who test positive or who are contact cases. People who test positive no longer have to self-isolate automatically (although they are recommended to do so), and contact cases are no longer required to take a test.
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