Booster dose

The Delta variant of the new coronavirus can be easily transmitted by vaccinated people through household contact, and contacts are unlikely to become infected if they themselves are vaccinated, according to a British study quoted by Reuters.

The European Medicines Agency has approved the administration of a booster dose of the Moderna vaccine.

The regulator concluded that booster doses could be given to individuals over 18 years of age at least six months after the second dose.

As of Saturday, the United States had administered 412,856,169 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and sent 503,521,625 doses to vaccination centers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Some 5 million people who have already received two doses of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccines have skipped their third shot, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said, urging them to get the booster shot as soon as possible.

Turkey is presently using both the mRNA vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and the Chinese company Sinovac's inactivated vaccine in its inoculation drive.

Turkey has administered over 113.86 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since it launched an immunization drive this January, according to official figures released on Oct. 16.

More than 54.8 million people have gotten the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while around 47.2 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

"There is no doubt in the effectiveness of the vaccines against the Delta variant of coronavirus, although this effectiveness has been reduced. There is no doubt in the reliability and effectiveness of the four vaccines approved for use in the EU and in Bulgaria against Covid-19," said Prof. Mariana Murdzheva, clinical immunologist and rector of MU-Plovdiv.

EU legislation does not foresee checking the validity of certificates issued to fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This was stated today by a spokesman for the European Commission on the occasion of the decision of several EU countries to switch to an additional dose of vaccine.

He told K1 television that the medical part of the staff insisted at yesterday's session that it be publicly announced that they were in favor of introducing more restrictive measures. He also said that he did not know why COVID passes were not introduced yesterday. He also pointed out that he personally did everything and that he begged to be recalled if it bothered them.

A total of 791,141 people have been fully vaccinated in the Republic of North Macedonia by October 4th, and 425 have received a third booster dose, the country's health ministry announced on Tuesday, MIA reported.

The number of COVID-19 vaccine jabs given in Turkey has topped 110 million since an immunization campaign was launched in January, official figures showed on Oct. 2. 

Nearly 54 million people have received their first shots, while more than 44.8 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.