Health Ministry fast-tracks COVID-19 booster shots

The government began on Tuesday to administer third booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine to people who received their second doses six months ago or more.

Vaccine boosters have been shown to provide a higher level of antibody protection against the new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, which is thought to be the most contagious variant and has been detected in at least 106 countries thus far. 

According to the Health Ministry spokesperson, 400,000 people were invited to receive a third dose via SMS messages that the ministry began to send out on Friday, while the ministry published a list of which types of vaccine people can get as their booster shot depending on the type they received for their first two doses.

The spokesperson, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, said that the ministry would prioritize people with chronic diseases, the elderly and medical staff, as those sectors of the population are most vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus or experiencing serious illness.

According to Doctors Syndicate council member Ibrahim al-Zayat, doctors began to receive text messages inviting them to come and be vaccinated over the last 10 days.

Mada Masr observed that many vaccination centers in Greater Cairo offering third shots on Wednesday did not check whether members of the public had received messages from the Health Ministry, while citizens and staff who went to vaccination centers were not exclusively from vulnerable groups. 

Representatives of the Nation’s Future Party, which holds a majority in Parliament, were observed at a center in Asmarat area in eastern Cairo organizing people who came to get vaccinated into queues depending on which dose they had come to obtain.

A party member told Mada Masr that checking the SMS invitation messages is just a procedure to reduce crowding at vaccination centers, but said that people can get vaccinated regardless if they say yes when asked about whether they received a message.

Staff at a vaccination center in Cairo’s Abdeen area meanwhile, said that people would need to present vaccination certificates proving the dates of their first and second doses in order to qualify for a booster shot. If the certificate is lost, the staff said, people can still get vaccinated if they have filed a police report on the missing certificate.

Staff administering third shots at several centers in Cairo added the date and type of booster shots given out on Wednesday to the same certificate on which the first and second shots were recorded, contrary to the system announced on Tuesday by the Health Ministry spokesperson, who said that new certificates would be issued for third doses. 

According to official statements, around 50 million people in Egypt, or as much as half of the population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine so far.