Overview
- The Ständige Impfkommission has withdrawn its blanket recommendation for a Covid-19 basic immunization for healthy adults, removing the prior advice that all adults should reach 'basic immunity' through three contacts with the virus or vaccine.
- Stiko now recommends the standard annual booster primarily for people aged 75 and over, raising the previous routine threshold from 60 to 75 years.
- Annual booster guidance remains for people with underlying medical conditions, residents and staff of care facilities, and health-care workers including intensive care personnel.
- The Robert Koch Institute reported that more than 95 percent of adults have broad immunity from past infections or vaccinations, and Stiko cited a sustained decline in Covid hospitalizations and deaths as the basis for narrowing the guidance.
- Practical effects will depend on how federal and regional health authorities implement the change, including vaccine supply, public messaging, and prioritised late-summer or early-autumn booster campaigns for the groups still recommended to receive them.