Columbus Regional Health is expecting to receive updated COVID-19 boosters targeting the most common omicron strains of the virus after federal regulators approved the shots this past week.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized updated Pfizer boosters targeting omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 for anyone 12 or older who has received an initial two-dose vaccination or booster shot at least two months ago. Adults 18 or older also can get the updated Moderna booster if it has been at least two months since their last vaccination.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended the same eligibility requirements for the boosters.
CRH officials said they are not sure exactly when they will start receiving doses of the new booster shots but expect them soon. Pfizer said it expected to deliver 3 million doses to sites around the country by Tuesday.
CRH plans to distribute the vaccines through its doctor’s offices, said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue.
“We have indicated that we want those doses,” DeClue said. “We anticipate receiving them.”
The arrival of the new boosters comes at yet another critical moment of the pandemic. Health officials are hoping that the updated shots will blunt an expected winter surge of the virus, which is still killing around 500 people in the United States every day, The Associated Press reported.
A total of 10 people have died from COVID-19 in Bartholomew County and the surrounding area over the past month, according to the Indiana Department of Health. That includes four people in Bartholomew County, three in Decatur County, two in Jennings County, as well as one death each in Brown, Jackson and Shelby counties.
In addition, 14 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at CRH on Wednesday, according to hospital records. Coronavirus hospitalizations hovered between 14 and 16 each day over the previous week.
Until now, COVID-19 vaccines have targeted the original coronavirus strain, even as wildly different mutants emerged, according to wire reports. The new U.S. boosters are combination, or “bivalent,” shots. They contain half that original vaccine recipe and half protection against the newest omicron versions, BA.4 and BA.5, that are considered the most contagious yet.
The updated shots are only for use as a booster, not for someone’s first-ever vaccinations, according to wire reports. The original COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against severe illness and death, especially among younger and healthier people who’ve gotten at least one booster.
But those vaccines were designed to target the virus strain that circulated in early 2020. Effectiveness drops as new mutants emerge and more time passes since someone’s last shot. Since April, hospitalization rates in people over age 65 have jumped, the CDC said.
It’s not clear how many people will want an updated shot, according to wire reports. Just half of vaccinated Americans got the first recommended booster dose, and only a third of those 50 and older who were urged to get a second booster did so.
In Bartholomew County, 52.7% of vaccinated people ages 5 and up got their first booster shot, and just 36.3% of people ages 50 and up got their second booster dose, according to the CDC.
About 26,000 Bartholomew County residents have yet to get vaccinated at all against COVID-19, according to CDC estimates.
