France is recommending citizens who have recovered from COVID-19 should only receive a single dose of vaccine.

The advice comes after an announcement from the High Authority of Health (HAS) in December that patients who have had the virus should not be vaccinated for at least three months after presenting with symptoms.

The new recommendation comes as clinical trials studied by HAS showed that immunity against the virus was significantly higher after the two doses for those who had previously recovered.

The French public health authority said that since people developed an immune response after recovering from the virus, it was a similar response the vaccine would give. 

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Authorities have said a single dose would likely be enough for those who already had an immune response as, "a single vaccine dose will also play the role of reminding" the immune system, AFP reports.

"At the moment, no country has positioned itself in terms of a sole vaccination dose for people who have already contracted COVID-19," authorities said.

Recently, two studies from the U.S. also suggested a single dose could also be enough for people who had already built up an immune response. 

With, another study finding that the "antibody response to the first vaccine dose in individuals with pre-existing immunity is equal to or even exceeds" those who had two doses of the vaccine.

The country has reported that nearly 3.4 million people had confirmed COVID-19 cases but the number is likely to be higher, given the lack of accessible testing during the country's first wave of the pandemic.

French health authorities have recommended a gap between three and six months, after infection before people who have recovered should receive the vaccine.

Yet, while the country has accelerated its vaccine roll-out program, it's still in its early stages, with more than 2.1 million people having received at least one vaccine dose and almost 535,800 having already received two.

Currently, all three COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use by the EU and are administered in the form of two doses, delivered weeks apart.

Source(s): AFP