As the Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 continues to spread around the world, Australia is looking to distribute a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose by next month, Reuters reports.

According to local news station Nine News Sydney, authorities have officially recommended a fourth dose for multiple groups of people, including all adults over 65 and immunocompromised people above the age of 16.

Data shows that 95% of Australians over 16 have received two doses of the vaccine, and around 67% have been distributed a booster dose.

The World Health Organization said earlier this week that COVID-19 is surging in many European countries as BA.2 continues to spread to other parts of the world.

“The countries where we see a particular increase are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said in a press conference in Moldova. “Those countries are lifting the restrictions brutally from too much to too few.”

WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris said that the pandemic is “far from over”, as the world is still “definitely in the middle of the pandemic."

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