Who should receive an additional dose in 2023/2024?

An additional dose of an updated vaccine for 2024 is recommended to be administered around 1 year (and no earlier than 5 months) after the last dose received. The additional dose is:

• Recommended for all persons aged 60 years and above, medically vulnerable individuals and residents of aged care facilities;

• Encouraged for all individuals aged 6 months and above, in particular, healthcare workers, as well as household members and caregivers of medically vulnerable individuals.

The Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty and Moderna/Spikevax vaccines are recommended for this. Those who are medically ineligible for mRNA vaccines may receive Novavax/Nuvaxovid* or Sinovac-CoronaVac^ as an alternative.

Note: Age eligibility for the various vaccines apply. Under the National Vaccination Programme, persons aged 6 months to 11 years are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty and Moderna/Spikevax vaccines. Persons aged 12-17 years are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty, Moderna/Spikevax or Novavax/Nuvaxovid vaccines. Persons aged 18 years and older are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty, Moderna/Spikevax, Novavax/Nuvaxovid* or Sinovac-CoronaVac^ vaccines.

*The Novavax/Nuvaxovid vaccine is currently unavailable under the National Vaccination Programme. Novavax is in the process of filing for regulatory approval for its updated COVID-19 XBB.1.5 vaccine formulation.

^Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine continues to be included under the National Vaccination Programme (NVP). However, if there is no application for Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine to be fully registered, NVP will lapse for Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine, by 30 September 2024. Nevertheless, Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine will continue to be available at private clinics which have applied to use it under the Special Access Route (SAR).