Slovenia launches omicron booster vaccination
Ljubljana - Slovenia started administering omicron-adapted boosters on Tuesday. Vaccination is recommended for chronic patients, care home residents and those over the age of 60. So far, healthcare centres report no significant increase in demand.
There are nearly 153,000 doses of the omicron-adapted Pfizer vaccine in Slovenia, which has been approved for use. Nearly 4,900 doses were sent out to health facilities today, the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) has said.
Slovenia has also received some 33,000 omicron-adapted doses of the Moderna vaccine, but this vaccine has not yet been approved for use because the producer has not yet submitted the required documents, NIJZ said.
Both vaccines have been registered for use in persons over the age of 12 as boosters, national vaccination coordinator Marta Grgič Vitek told the press last week. The adapted vaccines will only be used as boosters and not as basic jabs.
Clinical trials have shown that both adapted vaccines provide a higher level of antibodies that neutralise the omicron variant and its subvariants, Grgič Vitek said.
The vaccines are adapted to the BA.1 variant, which is no longer the predominant subvariant in Slovenia, having been superseded by the BA.5 subvariant.
Maribor Healthcare Centre Director Jernej Završnik said the interest in getting the Pfizer booster might be low because people may be waiting for a vaccine adapted to the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which has also been approved.
The most recent data from NIJZ shows that over 11,700 people have received two boosters so far. The data does not yet include the omicron-adapted vaccines.