The health ministry in Italy has now recommended that individuals with a severely compromised immune system should be given a fourth COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose. The fourth shot will be administered at least 120 days after the previous booster dose, said the ministry.

The government’s special commissioner for COVID-19 emergency will set the date for the recommendation to come into effect, depending on the needs of the vaccination campaign. The ministry stated that the decision indicates that the virus is in circulation at a high level and emphasizes the effectiveness that booster shots had shown in preventing COVID-related deaths and symptoms that would need hospital admission.

The country has logged 152,848 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began in February 2020, and has registered 12.4 million infections thus far… (Reuters, February 20, 2022)