Those who have seen at least six months elapse since their completion of a COVID-19 vaccination course will be eligible to receive a booster shot in Macao from 9 November.

The initial phase of the programme will be open to those either engaged in jobs with a high risk of infection; those people with a weakened immune system; or those who are immunocompromised to an extent ranging from moderate up to severe.

Appointments for booster shots will be available starting from 9am on 8 November, with the administering of shots commencing from 9am on 9 November. The service will be available in an aggregate of 18 vaccination stations across the city.

Details of the booster vaccine programme were announced by the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre during a regular press conference on Thursday (4 November).

Individuals considered to be at higher-than-average risk of COVID-19 infection are: checkpoint facility staff; airline crews; people working in medical observation facilities; either firefighters, staff transporting people to medical observation facilities, or transporting those that have tested ‘positive’ for infection; those in jobs serving many members of the public; people working in the cold-chain industry; and those that urgently need to travel to places evaluated to be high risk for COVID-19 infection.

Those eligible to receive a booster shot in Macao can choose either Sinopharm’s inactivated-type vaccine, or the ‘mRNA-based’ vaccine developed by BioNTech.

People are advised to choose as their booster shot, the same vaccine they chose for their initial doses. They can swap to the other one if they wish to.

It is suggested that the following groups of people do not take a booster dose:

- those aged 12 years or younger;

- those aged between 12 and 17, unless they are immunocompromised to an extent ranging from moderate up to severe;

- individuals aged between 18 and 59 who have received two doses of ‘mRNA-based’ vaccine developed by BioNTech, and who are not engaged in any job with a high risk of infection; and

- those that have completed a course of adenovirus-based vaccine against COVID-19.

The booster shot programme will be open to other groups of people at a later stage. More details will be made available in a timely manner.