BRUSSELS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Belgium started a vaccination campaign on Monday with new Omicron-adapted COVID-19 shots. It is primarily a "booster" dose for people who have already received vaccines against COVID-19.
The current campaign is primarily aimed at immunocompromised people, those aged 65 and over, and health professionals in hospitals and nursing homes.
This first phase of the new Omicron-specific booster campaign will run from Sept. 12 to Oct. 1 in Wallonia, Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region.
According to figures published on Monday by 7sur7.be, more than 700,000 invitations have been sent to all Walloons over 65 years of age who meet the conditions for revaccination.
People in the 50-64 age group will receive their invitation later.
Coronavirus indicators remain stable in Belgium. According to the Sciensano Scientific Institute of Public Health, 1,489 new COVID-19 infections on average were recorded per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, a decrease of 2 percent compared to the previous week.
As autumn approaches, some experts fear a new wave and are reiterating their call for caution.
As of Sept. 5, 25,800,728 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Belgium. The vaccination coverage for the second booster dose is 5.2 percent of the total population, and that of people aged 85 and over is 48.2 percent, according to Sciensano. ■
