Sweden recommended a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose to people aged 65 and above along with people living in nursing homes or getting home care.
The recommendation includes fourth shots for those between 18–64 with moderate to severe immune deficiency, Sweden’s Public Health Agency said. “The goal is just as before to prevent serious illness and death from Covid19,” Agency chief Karin Tegmark Wisell said.
Adding she said that it’s “justified” to provide a second booster shot to a wider age range because infections in Sweden and other countries continue to multiply and vaccine protection is starting to decline for older age groups.For people aged 65 and above, it is now four months since the previous vaccine dose, and the vaccine’s protective effect lessens over time.”
Sweden never went into lockdown or closed businesses, largely relying instead on individual responsibility to control infections.
While coronavirus deaths were high compared with other countries, they were lower than many other places in Europe that did implement lockdowns. Tegmark Wisell stated that “the pandemic is not over and we still have in Sweden a significant spread of infection in society”.
