The members of the Commission for Infectious Diseases of North Macedonia today reached a decision for the start of the vaccination against COVID-19 with the fourth dose, writes META.

“The fourth dose may be administered to persons over the age of 18, who have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Citizens from today can go to the vaccination points, there is no need to make an appointment beforehand,“ the Ministry of Health informs.

The vaccination with the fourth dose, as planned, will be done with an mRNA vaccine, from “Pfizer” or from “Moderna”.

The recommended time distance between the third and the fourth, i.e. booster dose, is at least four months.

The vaccination with the fourth dose is especially recommended for the chronically ill, the patients who are on dialysis or have undergone transplantations, the oncological patients, the immuno-compromised patients, and those who are receiving immuno-suppressive and immuno-modulatory therapy for any indication, and also for the persons over 60 years of age.

The Commission met today as the numbers of the new COVID-19 cases began to grow in the recent days. Meta.mk yesterday wrote that if twenty days ago the figures amounted to fifty cases a day, in recent days, the picture has shifted and there are almost 300 new cases daily. The infection rate reaches up to 18 percent of those tested.

Health experts recently predicted that the numbers would rise in autumn, not in the summer months, but these forecasts proved incorrect.