Booster Shot Preparations For All Adults Made In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — After a White House announcement that a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine could be available to adults as soon as Sept. 20, the City of Alexandria is preparing to administer the additional doses.

A booster shot recommendation would need to be made by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after reviewing data. The booster shot would only be for people who have received two doses of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna). No recommendation is expected yet for a booster shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Alexandria Health Department is working to scale up vaccination efforts once the booster shots can begin. It is already administering booster shots to moderately and severely immunocompromised people based on recommendation from the FDA and CDC.

If a booster is recommended for all adults, vaccinated adults would be eligible eight months after they received their second dose. Health care workers and long-term care facility residents would be among the first to be eligible, since they were the first group eligible when the vaccines first came out in December 2020. Booster shots will be available through Alexandria Health Department clinics, private medical providers and some employers.

According to the health department, a booster shot may increase the vaccine's effectiveness and protect better protection against the delta variant, which is more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain and other variants.

People who are significantly immunocompromised can seek a booster dose now. The third dose should be at least 28 days after the second dose and be the same mRNA vaccine as the first two doses. For more information on eligibility, visit www.alexandriava.gov/Vaccines.