Luxembourg's Ministry of State and the Ministry of Health have announced that the waiting time for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots is being reduced to five months.

Amid surging coronavirus cases, the threat of the Omicron variant and the increasing number of vaccinated people requiring hospitalisation, and following the recommendations of the Superior Council for Infectious Diseases (Conseil supérieur des maladies infectieuses - CSMI) issued on 14 December 2021, the Government Council decided on Wednesday to reduce the interval between the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines and the booster dose from six months to five.

The Luxembourg government will proceed in two stages. From the invitations that will be sent out at the beginning of next week and until the end of the year, booster shots will be available as early as five months after the last injection. In the case of invitations to be sent out in the week of 3 January 2022, booster shots will possible after four months already.

At present, the booster shot is administered at least five months after the last dose of a complete primary series (mRNA vaccine) or at least four months after the second dose of the Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) vaccine. The vaccine product used for booster shots is an mRNA vaccine, regardless of the vaccine administered initially: either Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech), 30 ug (full dose) or Spikevax (Moderna), 50 ug (half dose). The booster may be based on a different mRNA vaccine from the one used for the primary series.

For immunocompromised people, people who have had an organ transplant and dialysis-treated patients, the primary vaccination already includes an additional dose (scheduled at 0, 28 and 84 days); a booster dose is then available at least five months after these initial vaccinations.

Those concerned will receive an invitation from the Luxembourg government by post to be vaccinated, with a detailed indication of the procedure for making an appointment in one of the four vaccination centres or with their GP. The list of vaccination centres and participating GPs is available on the impfen.lu website.

Personalised assistance is also available via the hotline: 247-65533.