From now on second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be administered after an interval of six weeks for new registrants. Appointments for receiving second doses that have already been booked will not be postponed. Photo Credit: Freepik / Illustrative Photo.
Czech Rep., Mar 31 (BD) – The Government Council for Health Risks has approved an extension to the interval between the first and second doses of vaccination against Covid-19, which was previously announced by Health Minister Jan Blatný. From now on, second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be administered after 42 days have passed since the first dose.
According to Blatný, there is no need to worry about second doses being slightly postponed, as two weeks after the first dose a vaccinated person is approximately 80 percent protected. The extension of the period between the first and second doses will allow more people to be given the first dose, thus protecting more of the population against a severe course of the disease.
Until now the standard intervals have been 21 days for the Pfizer vaccine and 28 days in the case of Moderna. The changes to the interval will only apply to new registrations; appointments already booked for receiving the second dose will not be postponed.
Following Blatný’s announcement on Sunday, the Ministry of Health wrote on Twitter: “Those newly registered for Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations will receive the second dose of vaccine after 42 days. From a professional point of view, it’s perfectly fine, no need to worry. But for all of us, this change will allow us to protect more people in less time.”
So far, 1.13 million people have been vaccinated in the Czech Republic, of whom almost 445,000 have received the second dose of the vaccine. Another 99,000 people have been given appointments and more than 600,000 are registered for vaccination. So far vaccination has only been available for health professionals, clients and employees of inpatient social services facilities, people over the age of 70, people with certain chronic conditions, and certain employees of the state’s critical infrastructure.
