Madrid announced two weeks ago that it would advance its vaccination plan so that those who were at the expense of receiving their second dose would do so as soon as possible. The reason: the increasingly worrying circulation of the Indian strain . Now, the European ECDC has taken up that same argument and has urged all countries to advance the second pending doses as soon as possible. If not, they say, difficult situations could arise at the end of August.
“Full vaccination of all groups at highest risk for severe COVID-19 should be achieved as soon as possible to reduce the risk of hospitalizations and deaths, ” the ECDC warned in a recent threat assessment report focused on the Indian strain of the coronavirus. , the now called delta variant.
“In order to achieve maximum protection in the shortest time possible, it is recommended that people at the highest risk of severe outcomes for SARS-CoV-2 receive a second dose of vaccine in the shortest possible interval after administration of the first dose.
In this way, the European body in charge of managing the response to pandemics recommends the same solution that Madrid has implemented at the beginning of June in the face of the threat of the delta variant.
The Madrid Ministry of Health, after checking the data provided by the epidemiological area of the General Directorate of Public Health , decided to start bringing appointments for people between 60 and 69 who were still pending to receive the second dose of AstraZeneca by one week. . Catalonia and Andalusia followed suit.
“One dose is not enough”
According to the ECDC, “further acceleration of vaccination implementation, including achieving higher levels of vaccination coverage, could have a substantial impact on decreasing incidence, hospitalizations and deaths, particularly in groups of Older”.
As the ECDC warns based on the available evidence, the worrying variant (VOC) of SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) «is 40-60% more transmissible than Alpha VOC (Î’.1.1 .7) and may be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization. ‘
Furthermore, “there is evidence that those who have only received the first dose of a two-dose vaccination cycle are less protected against infection with the delta variant than against other variants, regardless of the type of vaccine. However, full vaccination provides almost equivalent protection against the delta variant. ‘
What can come in August
In the absence of such vaccination, the European forecasts are serious: ‘The modeling scenarios indicate that any relaxation during the summer months of the stringency of the non-pharmaceutical measures that were in force in the EU at the beginning of June could lead to to a rapid and significant increase in daily cases in all age groups, with an associated increase in hospitalizations and deaths, potentially reaching the same fall 2020 levels if no further action is taken. ‘
Based on these prediction models, ’70 % of new SARS-CoV-2 infections are projected to be due to this variant [delta] in the EU in early August and 90% of infections by late August. August”.
