Belgium to offer COVID-19 booster shots to 65-plus

Participants in Belgium's Interministerial Health Conference agreed on Wednesday to offer a third COVID-19 booster vaccine to all people aged 65 and over before the end of 2021, reported Xinhua.

This agreement to offer a booster Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccination was confirmed by Christie Morreale, the Walloon minister of health.

"All people over 65 will be offered an mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccine. Studies have shown that they are the most robust to provide additional protection," Flemish Health Minister Wouter Beke said.

This third dose will be given at least four months after the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, or the single Johnson & Johnson vaccine dose, and at least six months after the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

This decision by Belgium's regional and federal health ministers aims to provide additional protection for people over 65, in particular those in nursing homes and with co-morbidities.

Since Belgium has carried out a COVID-19 vaccination campaign since late last December. To date, 72.8 percent of the country's population have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the Sciensano Public Health Institute.

Belgium has recorded 1,240,232 COVID-19 cases and 25,581 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.