Regional Meeting on COVID-19 vaccination

Overview

Current epidemiology of COVID-19 disease, globally and in the Region

The epidemiology of COVID-19 disease has changed from the pandemic period to the post-pandemic period. A global summary of the data between 1 January and 10 September 2023 showed that the highest proportions of COVID-19 deaths occurred in persons aged 65 years and above, with this group representing between 43.6% and 92.3% in different WHO regions. 

In the South-East (SE) Asia Region, the proportion of deaths among the total due to COVID-19 disease among those aged 65 years and above, ranged from 49.2% to 100% in 2020–2021 (eight reporting countries), and 43.6% to 59.5% in 2022–2023 (three reporting countries). The age group of 65 years and above still represents the groups most affected by COVID-19 deaths. 

Current WHO global recommendations

At the 15th meeting of the IHR Emergency Committee, the WHO Director-General announced the termination of the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 5 May 2023, and issued temporary recommendations to all States Parties. 

On 2 November 2023, WHO published and updated the “WHO SAGE Roadmap for prioritizing uses of COVID-19 vaccines” document 1 and the “Good practice statement on the use of variant-containing COVID-19 vaccines” to account for novel monovalent XBB variant vaccines, on 2 November 2023.2 The updated roadmap provided for consideration of novel monovalent XBB vaccines in relation to timing and frequency of revaccination intervals, and primary immunization schedules (consideration of simplified posology). 

Given that most of the population has had at least one severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection, the roadmap also recommends a simplified vaccine schedule. Terms such as “initial doses” instead of primary series are  now used to reflect the fact that most of the population has been primed. Instead of booster doses, WHO now also refers to “re-vaccination”.