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Denmark to give booster Covid-19 jab six months after vaccination

The Local Denmark
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Denmark to give booster Covid-19 jab six months after vaccination
A pop-up vaccination center in Faelledparken , where you could get a Covid-19 vaccine without an appointment before the Danish band The Minds of 99 gave a concert in the Parken, Copenhagen, on Saturday 11 September 2021. (Photo: Olafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix)

People in Denmark are to be offered a third or booster vaccination against Covid-19 six months and two weeks after their first vaccination course was completed. The policy will initially primarily apply to people over the age of 65.

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From next week, residents of Denmark who were given their second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine six and a half months ago will be offered a booster jab, the Danish Health Authority said in a statement on Friday.

The policy will initially primarily apply to people over the age of 65, but younger people could be encompassed at a later stage, according to information published by the authority.

People aged 65-84 will be the first to be offered a third dose under the policy since this age group was among the first to receive vaccinations against Covid-19 in the late winter and early spring.

The announcement represents the “second phase of the revaccination programme”, the authority said.

People aged 85 and over, those in vulnerable risk groups, health sector workers and the around 50,000 people who were given the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson have already been offered booster vaccinations.

Denmark stated its intention to offer all of the eligible population a booster jab as early as August, while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) advised boosters for the general population last week.

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The first invitations for the third dose will be sent from Monday October 18th.

“We have assessed that persons over 65 years, staff in the health and elderly care sector and people with higher risk should be offered revaccination when it is more than six and a half months since their last vaccination,” Danish Health Authority deputy director Helene Probst said in the statement.

“The timing of revaccination is crucial. We want to begin revaccination before people get seriously ill with Covid-19 and at the same time ensure revaccination is done on a well-supported, knowledge-based foundation,” Probst added.

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Revaccination of over 65s is considered by the authority to have “no risk of new serious side effects with a third dose”.

Younger people may, however, experience stronger reactions including “pain at the injection point, mild fever, discomfort and headache,” the authority said in the statement.

“We expect… that the rest of the population will be revaccinated in the longer term. We will follow this area very closely and continually assess whether there’s a medical need to offer revaccination to the rest of the population,” Probst said.

The authority will also monitor “whether the interval between second and third dose should remain at six and a half months, or whether it should be longer,” she added.

The EU earlier in October approved revaccination of people aged 18 and over once six months have passed after the second dose.

That approval currently only applies to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination, but the Moderna jab is expected to be given the same approval in the coming weeks.

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