Berlin: Germany on Friday recommends that people mix the Astrazeneca Covid vaccine with Pfizer or Moderna to increase the immune response to Coronavirus and shorten the interval period between the two shots.
The German government advises people to choose the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for their second jab, report NHK World.
The move came one day after the committee remained in the vaccination issued a draft recommendation with the same effect.
The committee recommends that the second dose was given four weeks or more after the first Astrazeneca shot.
It’s much shorter than nine or more weeks the committee recommends between two doses of astrazeneca.
Health Minister Jens Spahn said that Germany expects a very contagious Delta variant to take into account nearly 80% of infections at the end of July.
So far, more than 55% of the German population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Spahn emphasizes the addition of the second shot will provide more protection against the Delta variant, report NHK WORLD.
Last Monday, a research group from the University of Oxford Britain said combining the astrazeneca dose and the Pfizer vaccine had produced a stronger immune response than having two AstraZeneca rounds in the trial.
Joachim Hombach, the Head of the WHO expert panel, said on Thursday that it was “good news.” He noted this could offer more flexibility to countries facing the supply constraint of vaccines.
However, he also added that the efficacy and security of mixing vaccines other than Astrazeneca and Pfizer were being studied and that who did not recommend mixing other types of vaccines.