Did Your Patient Receive a COVID-19 Vaccination Outside the United States?

Have questions? The “People vaccinated outside the United States” section of the CDC’s Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines provides guidance on different scenarios.

Talk to your patient and gather the initial information:

1. Which COVID-19 vaccine did the patient receive?
2. Is the COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO)?
3. Did your patient complete a full series of this COVID-19 vaccine (e.g. receive both doses if two doses are recommended)?

Guidelines as of 7/15/21:

US FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines:

• Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty, Tozinameran; mRNA nucleoside modified) – 2 doses
• Moderna (Spikevax; mRNA nucleoside modified) – 2 doses
• Johnson & Johnson / Janssen (Ad26.COV2-S recombinant) – 1 dose

COVID-19 vaccines listed for emergency use by the WHO:

• US FDA-authorized vaccines above
• AstraZeneca-Oxford (Covishield, Vaxzevria; ChAdOx1-S recombinant) – 2 doses
• Sinopharm (Vero Cell inactivated) – 2 doses
• Sinovac (Vero Cell inactivated) – 2 doses

See the table below for a summary of recommendations for patients who received a COVID-19 vaccination outside of the US:

Resources:

• WHO – Prequalification of Medical Products: Coronavirus Disease
• Regulation and Prequalification: COVID-19 vaccines
• CDC’s Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines
• New York Times: COVID World Vaccination Tracker Map

Thank you for keeping Philadelphia safe and healthy! If you have any questions, please email vaccines@phila.gov.