Moderna vaccine's second dose should be administered within 6 weeks: WHO
Moderna's logo is reflected in a drop on a syringe needle in this illustration taken November 9, 2020.
The experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) have claimed it is safe to administer the second jab of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine after six weeks.
Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, similar to the Pfizer-BioNtech's vaccine, also requires a booster after three to four weeks of the first jab. However, some countries, such as France, are considering increasing the gap between the two doses as they face an irregular and limited supply of vaccine doses.
While France's health advisory body suggested doubling the gap between the two doses from three weeks to six weeks.
The Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS) believes increasing this gap will allow the country to vaccinate at least 700,000 more people than originally planned.
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"The growing number of infections and the worrying arrival of new variants call for an acceleration of the vaccination campaign in order to prevent the epidemic from spiking in coming weeks," the advisory body said in a statement.
However, the WHO has suggested against it and has urged countries to respect the tested intervals between the two doses, i.e. 21 days for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 28 days for Moderna.
Meanwhile, the UN health agency is hoping to approve the Moderna vaccine as soon as possible. "We're working with Moderna to go as quickly as possible," WHO's vaccines chief Kate O'Brien told the online briefing.
As of now, it has only approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, although experts believe the two vaccines are very similar except for the storage requirements — Pfizer-BioNTech jab is stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit) and Moderna doses can be stored at -20 C.
The advisory body has also urged countries to keep the healthcare workers and vulnerable people in priority for vaccination and has insisted that international travellers should not be kept in the priority list for the vaccine, at least for the time being.
"In the current period of very limited vaccine supply, preferential vaccination of international travellers would counter the principle of equity," SAGE said. "Because of this, and the lack of evidence that vaccination reduces the risk of transmission, SAGE currently does not recommend Covid-19 vaccination of travellers."