Germany Announces 4th Booster Dose For Omicron, Britain May Follow

Following the example of Israel, Germany has announced a fourth COVID booster to tackle the Omicron variant, as per IANS. Britain may also do the same as cases rise.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach warned that a fourth dose will be necessary to tackle Omicron, as per Daily Mail.

Germany ordered millions of new doses of an omicron-specific vaccine from BioNTech. However, they are not expected to be delivered until April or May.

AP

Currently, Moderna's Covid vaccine is used in the booster campaign, Lauterbach said. He added that Germany had also ordered 4 million doses of the new Novavax jab along with 11 million doses of the new Valneva shot, which is yet to get authorisation.

Germany's Robert Koch Institute disease control chief said that the Omicron variant would be the dominant form mid-January, as per Dw.com.

"In the past few days, the number of cases has been declining, but unfortunately, this is not a sign of easing," said Lothar Wieler during a presser.

AP

"We need to get the still very high case numbers down. Christmas must not be the spark that lights the Omicron fire," he added.

UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is also considering the rollout of the second set of boosters, as per The Telegraph.

"We need to see more data. We are in different circumstances to Israel and we need to see more data on waning immunity and vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation," Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the JCVI, said.