People in Belgium who receive AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine will get a second dose after just eight weeks instead of after 12, Belgium's Health Ministers decided on Wednesday.
Nothing changes for people who have already had their first shot or received an invitation, as the shorter interval will only apply to people who receive an invitation to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the mail from Thursday, according to reports from VRT News.
This announcement follows the decision made by the Brussels region last week to shorten the waiting period between both doses, and could result in the adult population in Belgium being fully vaccinated sooner than expected.
The Agency for Care and Health has already asked people not to contact vaccination centres to request for an already scheduled appointment to be brought forward.
This week, Belgium received a total of 5,030,565 doses of the four approved coronavirus vaccines, of which over 1.3 million came from AstraZeneca, according to the weekly update of the FPS Public Health published on Tuesday.
People aged 41 and over are now able to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in Belgium following an official decision to lower the minimum age limit across the country at the end of April, overturning the previously announced restriction limiting the vaccine to those over 55 years old due to the rare risk of thrombosis.
