US will recommend Covid booster shots for everyone within 8 months of vaccination

Healthcare workers and nursing residents would be among the first to get the jab

A person receives a dose of vaccine against covid-19 during a new vaccination day in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (EPA)

US will recommend most Americans to get a Covid-19 booster vaccination within eight months after they have received their second shot, according to officials in the Biden administration.

The drive to vaccinate people with a third Covid-19 vaccine jab could begin as soon as mid to late September.

Health officials in the Biden administrations have been actively looking whether extra shots are required for the vaccinated people to provide additional protection against the Delta variant that has caused the new surge in the country.

The new policy to inoculate people widely with a third jab will require authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration.

The action is expected to be announced in the coming weeks for the people who have received the Pfizer shot, according to Associated Press.

Officials in the Biden administration are particularly worried about the studies from Israel where preliminary data suggest that vaccine’s efficacy against serious illness waned among those who were first vaccinated in January.

The data from Israel, which exclusively administered the Pfizer shot, showed erosion of immunity of the vaccine over time both against mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infections. Israel is already offering a booster dose to people over 60 who were vaccinated more than five months ago.

The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr Francis Collins, on Sunday said that the US will make the decision in the coming weeks if the US should inoculate all people by this fall.

"There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness," Dr Collins said. "And delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with. The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers, as well as people in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward."

The first doses of boosters will likely be given to nursing home residents and health care workers followed by elderly people who were among the first to receive the vaccination.

Officials are also collecting data about Johnson & Johnson, which was authorised as a one-dose regimen, to determine whether to recommend booster shots for people who received it.