All pre- and post-transplant patients are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and get additional vaccine doses as they become available.
A complete primary vaccine series for solid organ transplant recipients aged 5 years and up involves two doses of an XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine (Individuals who began their primary series with non-XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines will continue to receive a three-dose primary series). Instead of one dose, two doses of an XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine offer better protection for people who are immunocompromised, and is safe and recommended for transplant recipients who have never been vaccinated. If you were vaccinated before your transplant, you may have only received one dose of an XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine and that is acceptable.
A complete primary vaccines series for transplant recipients aged 6 months to under 5 years involves three doses of an XBB.1.5 COVID-19 Moderna SPIKEVAX vaccine, or four doses of an XBB.1.5 Pfizer BioNTech COMIRNATY vaccine.
Transplant recipients (age 6 months and up) may have also received additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine starting approximately six months after their primary vaccine series.
An additional vaccine dose starting in the spring of 2024 is expected to increase protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 symptomatic and severe disease that has waned since the last COVID-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection. It is highly recommended to get an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose this spring 2024.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends patients to wait at least 6 months after their last dose to get another dose. However, a shorter interval of at least 3 months (i.e., a minimum interval of 3 months) has not been shown to pose a safety risk and may be used to support program implementation (including timing of the spring campaign relative to previous and future fall campaigns).
If you recently had COVID-19, you should wait at least six months to get your additional COVID-19 vaccine dose.
