January 28, 2021 Clinician Advisory – COVID-19
Reminder: Moderately-to-severely immunosuppressed people are eligible for third primary dose and booster
Requested action:
Reinforce COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for your immunosuppressed patients.
What is the current recommendation?
Moderately-to-severely immunocompromised people greater than 5 years of age are eligible for :
- a 3rd primary series dose ≥28 days after dose 2, AND
- among those who are ≥12 years of age, are, and (2) a booster (4th dose) ≥5 months after dose number 3 of the primary series.
See the Washington State Department of Health’s (WA DOH’s) notice for additional information.
Background
We have heard of moderately-to-severely immunosuppressed patients reporting that they were rejected for a booster/4th COVID-19 vaccine dose when presenting to a vaccine providers for that purpose. This may be because the provider does not know the recommendations, or it could be that their facility or system is delayed in implementation of this at the patient interface even though they do know the correct recommendation.
WA DOH is working to ensure that vaccine providers understand this and do not reject these eligible patients’ request for a 4th dose.