People who received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine for their first dose can get an additional booster shot in Belgium, the country's various health ministers decided on Wednesday.
Other countries, including Germany and France, changed their definition of the basic vaccination schedule for people whose first dose was the J&J vaccine, at the start of this year. Here, a completed schedule consists of one dose of the J&J "one-shot vaccine", as well as one dose of an mRNA vaccine, while a third dose is seen as the booster dose.
This means people working in these countries or travelling there from Belgium, where a third dose is not needed, could face issues with their Covid Safe Ticket (CST) if they have only received two vaccine doses.
"People who want to avoid issues can get a third dose of an mRNA vaccine, either Moderna or Pfizer's vaccine," Gudrun Briat, spokesperson of the vaccination task force, told The Brussels Times.
Who can get this dose?
Flemish health minister Wouter Beke's cabinet confirmed to The Brussels Times that people will be able to get an additional dose three months after receiving the second shot on a voluntary basis. They can walk into a regional vaccination centre without an appointment to get this dose.
This additional dose will be made available to people in Flanders, Brussels and the German-speaking region. Wallonia's health minister Christie Morreale has decided to await an official decision from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is expected to be made at the end of this month.
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Before receiving the additional dose, people will be informed about the off-label use of this vaccine in this situation and will be provided with the available evidence about the safety of this vaccine used in this way.
The J&J vaccine was only administered to over -18s in Belgium. Around 400,000 people received the dose, most of whom were either between the ages of 40 and 65 or part of hard-to-reach groups such as homeless people, drug addicts and sex workers.
