Switzerland backs mRNA vaccine for booster jabs

The Swiss health authorities are pushing everyone to take a mRNA booster jab. Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

The Swiss authorities are advising teenagers in the 12 to 15-year-old age group to take a mRNA booster jab. The Pfizer/Biontech vaccine is also recommended as a booster for adults who received initial doses of the Janssen viral vector vaccine.

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Federal Commission for Vaccine (FCV) issued a joint statementExternal link on Friday that updated previous guidance on boosters.

“The intention is to increase individual protection against infection and severe disease and to slow the transmission and spread of the virus in the current epidemiological situation,” said the statement.

All age groups are advised to get mRNA vaccine boosters at least four months after basic immunisation, unless they have been infected with Covid-19, which would act as a booster.

The Swiss health regulator Swissmedic has already declared the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine to be safe for children as young as five – and was last month recommended as an initial dose by the health ministry.

Swissmedic has approved the Janssen vaccine as a booster for mRNA initial doses.

But health officials have backed Pfizer/Biontech as the best alternative. The Janssen vaccine should only be used as a booster for people who cannot, or are unwilling, to take the mRNA vaccine, the health authorities recommend.

The daily Covid-19 infection rate has been hovering at just under 40,000 for the last few days.

Some three million people in Switzerland have received an mRNA booster jab so far.