MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s medicines agency AIFA on Wednesday recommended a booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine to those innoculated with the Johnson & Johnson shot.
All those who have had a single shot of the J&J vaccine, regardless of age – about 1.6 million people in Italy – will be eligible to receive the booster from six months after the first dose, the agency said in statement.
It said it considered the booster necessary because the J&J vaccine had showed a slow decline in efficacy against mild and moderate forms of the disease as the months went by.
Italy started to inoculate vulnerable groups and the over 60s with a third vaccine dose in September.
More than 44.8 million Italians, or 83% of the population over the age of 12, are fully vaccinated against COVID.
Italy has registered 132,161 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.78 million cases to date.
The weekly incidence of cases, after months of decline, has been rising rapidly since last week, the National Health Institute said in a report on Friday.
In Europe, Spain and Germany have already authorised boosters for those who have had the J&J vaccine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Oct 20 authorized booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, and said Americans can choose a different shot from their original inoculation as a booster.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi, editing by Alexandra Hudson)
