“Moderately and severely immunocompromised persons should be offered an additional dose… since these individuals are less likely to respond adequately to vaccination following a standard primary vaccine series and are at high risk of severe Covid-19 disease,” the UN health agency’s strategic advisory group of experts on immunisation said.

In addition to this, it said that people over 60 who have been fully immunised with China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccine should be offered a third Covid-19 vaccine dose.

“For the Sinovac and Sinopharm inactivated vaccines, an additional (third) dose of the homologous vaccine should be offered to persons aged 60,” said the advisory group. 

A different vaccine “may also be considered based on vaccine supply and access considerations”.

SAGE added that when implementing this recommendation, countries should initially aim at maximising two-dose coverage in that population, and thereafter administer the third dose, starting in the oldest age groups.

The experts stressed they were not recommending an additional so-called booster dose for the population at large.

Further, they said that more people are getting vaccinated if they need to show certificates to access public places.