Federal Minister of Public Health Frank Vandenbroucke confirmed in the House committee on Tuesday that the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will soon be required to have a valid Covid Safe Ticket.
“There will come a time, the date of which has not yet been fixed, when the receipt of the booster will be decisive to have the green light of the Covid Safe Ticket”, he said in response to questions from Franky Demon (CD&V), Kathleen Depoorter (N-VA), Daniel Bacquelaine (MR), Robby De Caluwé (Open Vld) and Sophie Rohonyi (DéFI).
“And it’s not going to take a long time. It will be a European decision “, added the minister, evoking without further details “a number of weeks“. “It seems logical to me in the current context. It seems that, after a few months, the impact of the basic vaccination decreases sharply and the booster strengthens significantly.“
It makes sense to include this third dose in the CST, or even in a future vaccination pass.
According to Frank Vandenbroucke, the booster vaccination campaign is taking place “much faster than what we had initially announced “. “The original scheme took into account the vaccination of most of the adult Belgians by the end of January. As it stands, we should not send out invitations in early February. They will all have already been sent in January“The minister conceded, however”no more hesitation about this booster compared to the first vaccine“, adding that there was still “efforts to be made”.
In addition, an opinion was requested from the Superior Council of Health concerning the administration of the booster to young people from 12 to 17 years old. The European Medicines Agency has not yet given its authorization. In the majority, the minister received the support of MR Daniel Bacquelaine: “This is an answer to which I fully adhere. It makes sense to integrate this third dose into the CST, or even into a future vaccination pass. There is real logic in this approach.”