France and Germany will start giving out third doses to older people from 1 September, while Belgium will give more targeted jabs. Luxembourg is "impatiently" waiting for data coming out of Israel.

While Pfizer/BioNTech started recommending a third dose of its vaccine to increase its efficacy against the Delta variant as early as July, the World Health Organisation repeated last week that there is currently no data proving that a booster should be necessary.

But the lines are shifting on the subject as the new school year looms. "Injecting a third vaccine dose is authorised for people 30 years or older from today", stated the Israeli Ministry of Health on Tuesday.

The country has progressively lowered the minimum age after launching its campaign for a third dose three weeks ago, this despite the WHO calling for a moratorium on booster jabs. Over 1.5 million Israelis have since received a third dose.

"Intense work" behind the scenes

Asked about Luxembourg's position on the matter, the head of the National Health Directorate, Jean-Claude Schmit, told our colleagues from RTL Radio on Tuesday that this is currently being discussed in Luxembourg. The Ministry has in fact asked for the opinion of the Superior Council for infectious diseases, which is "working intensely on the subject", especially as there is "little scientific data".

"Many countries have not yet made a decision", said Dr Schmit, before adding that "some countries are considering vaccinating older people first, which is a possibility".

"We are impatiently waiting for the data Israel will be providing." The country is expected to publish the data they use to justify their booster campaign for all over 30es by the end of this week or early next week at the latest.

"This will certainly be interesting information for our decision making", says Dr. Schmit. "Israel is a good model, as they have a good surveillance system and everything is well documented."

Green light in France on Tuesday

In France, the health authorities recommended a booster jab with an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) for everyone aged 65 or older, as well as high risk patients.

The campaign will start from 1 September and will extend to a total of 18 million people.

In Germany, old and vulnerable people will be getting a booster jab from 1 September, as well as those who have not so far received an mRNA vaccine.

Belgium has given the green light for third jabs to immunocompromised people. This affects around 300 to 400,000 people.