Catoosa, Walker health departments offering 3rd vaccine dose to qualifying individuals

Health departments in the Georgia Department of Public Health Northwest Health District will provide an additional (third) dose of COVID-19 vaccine, on request, if the patient can self-attest to a qualifying health condition.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an additional or third dose of the vaccine should be considered for people with moderate to severe immune compromise due to a medical condition or receipt of immunosuppressive medications or treatments.

People should get the same vaccine — Moderna or Pfizer — as they received for their first two doses of the series.

Citing a lack of data, the FDA and CDC have not issued guidance for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Health departments in the Georgia Department of Public Health Northwest Health District (Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson,

Paulding, Polk and Walker counties) will provide the additional (third) dose of COVID-19 vaccine, on request, if the patient can selfattest to one of the qualifying immunocompromising medical conditions:

Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies

Receipt of a solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy

Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within two years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)

Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (such as DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome)

Advanced or untreated HIV infection

Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (≥20mg prednisone or equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumornecrosis (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.