New COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters Target Omicron: What To Know In VA

VIRGINIA — A new COVID-19 booster shot aimed at the omicron variant subvariant was approved by federal health officials and will soon be available in Virginia.

The Virginia Department of Health told Patch that the state pre-ordered 141,700 doses of the new booster. The orders included 100,800 Pfizer doses and 40,900 Moderna doses.

Initial deliveries of the new vaccine began on Thursday in Virginia and will continue through Wednesday, Sept. 7, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

On Thursday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations for use of the updated boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for people ages 12 years and older and from Moderna for people ages 18 years and older.

Until now, booster doses have targeted the original coronavirus strain. The new "updated boosters," as the Food and Drug Administration calls them, will tweak the existing vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to take aim at both the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. That's the lineage that is now dominant in the United States and predicted to circulate this fall and winter.

The new boosters are combination, or "bivalent," shots. This means the doses contain half the original vaccine and half the new formula targeting omicron.

The updated shots will be open to anyone who already had their primary vaccinations at least two months before receiving the booster dose.

The United States has purchased more than 170 million doses from the two companies. Pfizer said it could ship up to 15 million doses by the end of next week.

However, it's unclear how open Virginia residents will be to another booster shot. About 3 million people in Virginia received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, accounting for 38 percent of eligible residents.

The booster rate is higher for older Virginia residents, as 66.5 percent of people 65 or older received at least one booster shot.

The pandemic hasn't fully ended in Virginia. Over the last seven days, the Virginia Department of Health has recorded an average of 2,415 new COVID-19 cases each day. The health department has also recorded 105 COVID-19 deaths over the past week, including 24 on Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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