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France on Friday recommended that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 receive a single dose of the vaccine, making it the first country to issue such advice.
All three Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the European Union are administered as two doses, administered several weeks apart.
This is because clinical trials have shown that immunity against the disease was significantly higher after the subjects received two injections.
France’s public health authority said on Friday, however, that people who had previously been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that afforded by a dose of vaccine, and that a single dose after infection is likely it would be enough.
“A single dose of vaccine will also have the role of reminding” the immune system of how to fight Covid-19, the document said.
The authority recommended an interval between three and six months after the infection before individuals who recovered from Covid-19 received an injection.
“At the moment, no country has clearly positioned itself in terms of a single dose of vaccination for people who have already contracted Covid-19,” the document said.
The vaccination program is still starting
France has accelerated its vaccination program in recent weeks, but is still in its infancy.
As of Thursday, more than 2.1 million people had received at least one dose of the vaccine, with almost 535,800 having already received two.
At least 3.4 million people have confirmed Covid-19 infections in France, although there is likely to be much more, given the relative lack of accessible tests during the first wave of the pandemic.
Two recent studies in the USA suggest that a single dose of vaccine may work in individuals who have already recovered from Covid-19.
One article said that immunity in individuals who had Covid-19 and then received a single dose of the vaccine “is equal to or even higher” than people who did not have Covid-19 but received two doses of the vaccine.
A vaccine still under development by Johnson & Johnson works with a single dose, but has not yet received emergency use authorization from EU and US regulators.
(AFP)