Blue Ridge Health District offering additional COVID-19 bivalent boosters

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The Blue Ridge Health District is now offering and advising an additional COVID-19 booster for people who may need it. This comes as a new variant is making the rounds.

“What we’ve heard from from the FDA and the CDC is there’s certainly consideration to offering repeat vaccines moving forward,” said Doctor Costi Sifri with UVA Health.

The CDC updated its COVID-19 booster recommendations, allowing those 65 and older and immunocompromised people to receive an additional bivalent booster.

“We’ll see updated vaccine recommendations for COVID, perhaps coincident with the period of time where we’d see recommendations, for example, with the flu vaccine,” Dr. Sifri said.

BRHD is offering that additional shot now, and you will have to call your local health department directly to make an appointment.

Dr. Sifri says that more boosters could also be in store for other groups moving forward.

A lot of it’s going to depend on what type of circulating viruses are seeing what the efficacy of repeat doses are, and, and factors like that,” he said.

Doctors are currently watching the XBB.1.16 COVID-19 variant, which they say is more infectious and makes up about 10% of COVID cases in the U.S.

“[It’s] not more virulent, not causing more significant problems in terms of severe outcomes of COVID infection compared to the ones that they were replacing. And in fact, it would appear that most of these variants as they evolve are becoming less virulent,” Dr. Sifri said.

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