Covid-19: Brazil’s ANVISA recommends Coronavac booster dose for elderly and immunosuppressed

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian health regulatory agency (ANVISA) on Wednesday, August 18, recommended the Ministry of Health’s National Immunization Plan (PNI) consider a booster dose, on an experimental basis, for groups who have been administered two Coronavac doses, prioritizing target groups such as immunocompromised patients and the elderly over 80.

The agency’s director Meiruze Freitas said that within the context of the Delta variant circulating in Brazil, the booster vaccine dose can prevent severe cases in the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

Among the patients considered as immunocompromised are cancer patients, people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), transplant patients, and others with weakened immune systems.

The recommendation is not compulsory and does not need to be immediately implemented. On Wednesday, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said that the portfolio is considering the administration of a 3rd vaccine dose against Covid-19 and that it should begin with the elderly and healthcare professionals.

Freitas reinforced that before the PNI advances in the debate about additional doses, the expansion and comprehensiveness of the whole population’s vaccination coverage should be taken into account.

ANVISA’s directors also determined at the meeting that the Butantan Institute should present complementary data on immunogenicity and monitoring of the adult population, according to the schedule established in the term of commitment signed as part of the authorization for emergency use of the vaccine in the country earlier this year.