The territorial Department of Health, in response to new recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunizations, is recommending a third dose of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine for Nunavummiut who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
As a result, third doses are now available from an authorized physician or nurse practitioner and will be given at least 28 days after receiving the second dose of either of NunavutSA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½™s approved vaccines: Pfizer and Moderna.
Individuals who are 12 years of age or older who have one of the following conditions will be authorized to get a third dose:
-Active treatment for solid tumor or hematologic malignancies
-Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy
-Receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within two years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)
-Moderate to severe primary immunodeficiency (DiGeorge, Wiskott-Aldrich syndromes)
-Stage three or advanced untreated HIV infection, and those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
-Active treatment of the following categories of immunosuppressive therapies: anti-B cell therapies, high-dose systemic corticosteroids, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, or tumor-necrosis factor inhibitors and other biologic agents that are significantly immunosuppressive.