The EU’s health and medical services previously recommended a second reminder for over-80s in April. However, with concerns growing over an increase in cases in Europe, mainly due to Omicron’s BA.5 variant, the advisory was immediately expanded. The new recommendations go further than current advice in the UK, where people aged 75 and over, residents of nursing homes and those with weakened immune systems are offered a second booster. “With cases and hospitalizations rising again as we enter the summer season, I urge everyone to get vaccinated and boosted as quickly as possible,” said Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. “There is no time to lose,” he added in a statement issued by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency. “I call on Member States to immediately implement second boosters for everyone over 60 and for all vulnerable people.” ECDC director Andrea Ammon said there was “an increasing trend in admissions and occupancy in hospitals and ICUs in several countries”, mainly due to Omicron’s BA.5 variant. “This marks the start of a new, widespread wave of Covid-19 across the European Union. There are still too many people at risk of serious infection from Covid-19 that we need to protect as soon as possible,” Ammon said. However, the agencies also said there was still no need to give a second booster “to people under the age of 60 who are not at higher risk of serious illness” or to those who work in healthcare or care homes. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), Covid cases have been increasing sharply since the end of May in most of Europe. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The number of new daily cases in the WHO European region – which includes 53 countries and territories, including several in central Asia – surpassed 675,000 on Friday. In late June, the WHO said Europe was expected to see high levels of Covid-19 this summer, due to the milder but more contagious BA.5 variant. The summer periods of 2020 and 2021 have been characterized by a relative lull in Europe, with infections peaking so far in autumn and spring. Almost all European countries have seen a recent increase in cases. According to the World Health Organization Europe, Cyprus has the highest frequency, with France second, followed by Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Austria. In the UK, Covid infections also continue to rise, with one in 25 people in England, one in 20 in Wales and one in 17 in Scotland infected with the virus. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 2.7 million people in private households were estimated to have had Covid-19 last week, an 18% increase from 2.3 million the previous week. Around one in six people aged 75 and over in England (16%) have not received any dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the last six months, putting them at greater risk of severe disease. This could lead to increasing pressure on hospitals in the coming months. On Monday, US biotech company Moderna said it had completed regulatory submissions for its updated Covid vaccine in the UK, Europe and Australia. If approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the bivalent vaccine, which activates the immune system against Omicron and the original strain of the Covid virus, will be available for the autumn booster schedule. In a press statement, Moderna said the updated booster outperformed the existing booster against Omicron’s now dominant BA.4 and BA.4 variants, increasing neutralizing antibody levels 70% higher. In the autumn, people aged 65 and over in the UK will be offered a souvenir, as will frontline health and social care workers, and there is a proposal to include all over 50s in the scheme.
