VDH announces availability of bivalent COVID-19 boosters for kids 5+

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Children over the age of five can now get the updated bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine in Virginia.

This comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevent gave its recommendation last week.

The Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster is now available for children aged five years to 11 years with dosing a third of the adult dose. It was previously available for people 12 years and older who have completed their primary series or received their last monovalent booster at least two months ago.

The Moderna bivalent booster is now available for children aged six years to 11 years with dosing of half of the adult dose and for children and adolescents aged 12 years through 17 years with a dosing identical to Moderna’s adult vaccine. It was previously available for people 18 years and older who have completed their primary series or received their last monovalent booster at least two months ago.

“This is a great advancement in the world of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. It’s going to provide a lot of extra protection to a population that was vulnerable before this was approved,” Jordi Shelton, with the Central Shenandoah Health District, said.

Shelton encourages people in the Valley to get their kids scheduled for their COVID-19 booster or vaccine, especially with year-end holidays around the corner.

“[Local] cases have been declining somewhat for the last couple of weeks, but we are still seeing cases,” she said. “At this time, the COVID-19 community levels in all of our localities are considered to be low. It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen that, so while that’s good news, it’s definitely not a reason to let your guard up.”

The bivalent boosters target the original strain of COVID-19, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron variant.

Beginning Oct. 17, the CSHD will offer the Pfizer bivalent booster for people six years old and up. You can make an appointment here.

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