In the last couple of weeks, mainly vulnerable people and those above the age of 60 opted to get a second booster jab of a Covid-19 vaccine. First booster shots and initial vaccinations were rarely administered.
Ever since invitations for the second booster were sent out in mid July, the number of people getting vaccinated has declined by half with each week, explained Luc Feller, the High Commissioner for National Protection.
Another reason for the closure of the Victor Hugo vaccination centre is that the municipality of Luxembourg City will need the location during the Schueberfouer.
Feller noted: “We will try to rely on other vaccination capacities, including the more than 300 doctors that have signed the specification sheet, the pharmacists, the vaccine buses that we will reinforce, as well as the mobile teams that go to senior homes. I also expect that depending on the further unfolding of the situation, we will reopen the Victor Hugo centre and others in September.”
Feller conveyed that it is not yet clear whether more people will be invited for booster jabs due to the uncertainty of the situation: “What will the variants in autumn look like, will we have another ‘manageable’ Omicron variant or one that is more infectious or pathogenic?”
A similar situation applies to the newly developed vaccines for the Omicron variant, said Feller: “The question of when we will get new vaccines is not unimportant. New deliveries are scheduled to arrive in autumn, but the necessary authorisations have yet to be given.”
Luxembourg expects about 500,000 doses of the new vaccine manufactured by Moderna and 260,000 doses of the new type from Pfizer/BioNTech.
According to Dr Jean-Claude Schmit, people eligible for a booster should not wait for the new vaccines, but rather get inoculated with the existing ones due to the persisting threat.
“The vaccines that we have work very well, not against infection, but against complications”, explained the director of the Health Directorate. “This has clearly been proven and people should therefore protect themselves. It is still possible to get vaccinated at a later stage with one of the newer types.”
The certificate of the first booster jab has no expiration date in the EU. However, health authorities expect that another booster will become necessary after one year.
In the last couple of months, the virus has weakened and it is possible that it continues moving in that direction. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that a more aggressive variant may not yet change the course of the pandemic one more time.
