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The Brant County Well being Unit is pushing again folks’s second COVID-19 vaccine dose appointments to 4 months because it follows new federal and provincial guidelines geared toward getting extra folks preliminary photographs.
Anybody who has obtained their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine now should wait 16 weeks from after they received their first shot to obtain the second, the well being unit introduced in a information launch Thursday. Those that had already pre-scheduled an appointment for his or her second dose will likely be notified by well being unit to tell them of the change and to advise of the subsequent steps to e book a brand new second appointment.
The well being unit mentioned that, inside the subsequent two weeks, all these making first-dose appointment will have the ability to e book second appointments from after they obtain their first dose.
These exempt from this extension, based on a provincial memo, embrace:
• Residents of long-term care properties, retirement properties, elder-care lodges and assisted residing services who’re on the best danger of publicity to COVID-19, critical sickness and dying;
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• And distant and remoted First Nation communities.
The Nationwide Advisory Committee on Immunization mentioned it “recommends that within the context of restricted COVID-19 vaccine provide, jurisdictions ought to maximize the variety of people benefiting from the primary dose of vaccine by extending the interval for the second dose of vaccine to 4 months.”
This is applicable to the three, two-shot vaccines permitted by Well being Canada: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca-Oxford.
Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine is supposed to be given 21 days aside, whereas Moderna recommends 28 days. For AstraZeneca-Oxford’s, the interval is eight to 12 weeks.
However the effectiveness of the prolonged dose interval continues to be monitored, particularly the effectiveness towards the variants of concern, the province mentioned.
To study extra about COVID-19, how one can defend your self and what to do in case you suspect chances are you’ll be in danger, go to the well being unit’s web site: www.bchu.org/coronavirus.
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