New COVID-19 Booster Shots Available Next Week

LONG ISLAND, NY — COVID-19 booster shots designed to target the omicron subvariants will be available to New Yorkers as soon as next week, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved updated COVID-19 booster shots Friday from Moderna for people ages 18 years and older and from Pfizer for people ages 12 years and older, she said.

"With new boosters available next week, New Yorkers will soon be able to better protect themselves from the latest variants," Hochul said. "It is vital that we take advantage of the latest tools and resources at our disposal in order to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy. As we prepare for potential fall surges, I encourage New Yorkers to stay up to date on vaccines and remain vigilant."

The new vaccines come as Long Island's positivity rate Friday stood at 7.94 percent, compared to a statewide positivity rate of 6.87 percent, with 16 deaths reported over the past 24 hours.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to authorize "bivalent formulations' of the vaccines for use as a single booster dose at least two months following a primary or booster vaccination. The bivalent vaccines, are also called “updated boosters."

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 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 18 years of age and older. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older.

The updated boosters, include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that is "broadly protective against COVID-19 and an mRNA component in common between the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant," the FDA said.

The BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants are currently causing most cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and are predicted to circulate this fall and winter, the FDA said.

“The COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, continue to save countless lives and prevent the most serious outcomes — hospitalization and death— of COVID-19,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”

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.

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.