Quebec now says recovered COVID-19 patients should wait two months to get booster shot

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Quebec now says that those who's contracted and recovered from COVID-19 should wait two months before getting a booster shot.

The Ministry of Health issued a news release Friday altering its previous recommendation now saying those who have tested positive for COVID-19 on a PCR or rapid test should wait a "minimum interval of eight weeks."

The recommendation comes under a month after public health said anyone who wishes to get a booster should get one "as soon as possible" including those who've tested positive for the virus.

The ministry said the recent recommendation came from an opinion out of the Quebec Institute of Public Health (INSPQ).

"Decisions made by Public Health are based on a range of factors, including expert opinion, the epidemiological situation and Quebec's hospital capacity," said acting director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau in the release. "For people who have had the disease, and in particular, those who have had a PCR test confirmation, the booster dose remains safe, but it is preferable to wait a minimum of eight weeks before taking advantage of it."

The release says that those who are unsure if they have had the disease or have not had a PCR test confirming confirmed by a PCR test that their symptoms are in fact are the novel coronavirus "can get their booster dose as soon as possible."

"There is no risk in receiving this dose, and it is preferable to obtain this additional protection in the current context of the highly contagious Omicron variant," the release reads.

An Jan. 21 INSPQ report says a previously infected person should ideally wait three months between the infection and additional dose.

een theSimon Fraser University molecular immunologist Jamie Scott told CTV News that the initial suggestion to get the dose as soon as possible even if recently infected "doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Those infected with COVID-19, she said, have a large immune response already.

“The other issue is that the booster isn't going to be effective, partly because the antigen made by the vaccine gets cleared," she said. "And the other part of it is that since you had your infection, you're developing what are called memory cells.

"So you’re expanding that [cell] population that was initiated by the vaccine, [it] got expanded by your infection, and that expansion is still happening. And it takes a couple of months for that expansion for those cells to be fully developed.”