Some Canadians Are Being 'Strongly' Advised To Get Another COVID-19 Booster Dose This Fall

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has released a new statement that recommends, among other things, a fall COVID-19 booster shot for specific populations in Canada.

In a notice on June 29, the public health organization — made up of experts in infectious diseases, public health, pediatrics, immunology and more — issued a "strong recommendation" that key vulnerable communities be granted access to another COVID-19 booster shot this fall.

The groups they recommend should be offered the shot are those aged 65 and older, those who live in long-term care homes or "congregate living settings for seniors" and those with underlying medical conditions that put them at high risk for severe COVID-19 who are aged 12 and older.

The recommendations also call for the booster to be offered to adults in or from First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities, adults in racialized and marginalized communities disproportionally affected by COVID-19, and those 12 and older who live in congregate living settings, including shelters and correctional facilities.

Along with this, the NACI also issued a "discretionary recommendation" that calls for boosters to be potentially available to even more people.

It states that a COVID-19 booster "may be offered" to everyone aged 12 to 64 this fall, regardless of how many boosters they've had in the past.

The third recommendation, also a discretionary one, is that boosters may be offered six months after a previous COVID-19 vaccine or infection. But, there's an option for that interval to be shortened down to 3 months due to "heightened epidemiologic risk."

These recommendations come from the possibility that, as Canadians move indoors in the fall and winter months, COVID-19 numbers could rise.

Along with this comes the worry of the emergence of new variants or subvariants, another reason why the organization is calling for the booster.

So, to try to limit the impact of that potential influx of infection, the organization says we should focus our resources on getting boosters out to those who need them most.

Meanwhile, Canada has plans to change the definition of . On June 14, Canadian officials said that Canadians may move to have an "up-to-date" definition of vaccination, which varies by person depending on age and other factors.

This isn't the only vaccine news going on right now, as due to a recent uptick in monkeypox cases around the world, Canada and the United States have begun distributing vaccines for that disease as well.

Health Canada has a robust website with all the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines and can answer any questions you may have.