6-month-olds now eligible for COVID booster, county well being officers say

San Diego County youngsters as younger as 6 months outdated can obtain bivalent COVID-19 vaccination boosters Friday following Federal Drug Administration approval.

The FDA expanded the emergency use of the up to date Pfizer and Moderna bivalent booster vaccines to younger ages. The company beforehand expanded availability to incorporate 5- to 11-year-olds in October. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and California Division of Public Well being shortly advisable vaccinations for younger youngsters after the FDA approval.

“We will now present extra safety for kids as younger as 6 months of age from COVID-19,” stated County Public Well being Officer Dr. Wilma J. Wooten. “That is particularly necessary with the excessive incidence of COVID-19 in our group. Please take benefit and have your youngsters vaccinated to guard them and the remainder of your loved ones.”

The county Well being and Human Companies Company is recorded excessive numbers of a triple menace of respiratory ailments this winter season, from COVID-19 to the flu to respiratory syncytial virus.

Public Well being officers are nonetheless strongly urging folks to get vaccinated for each COVID-19 and the flu.

The bivalent COVID-19 booster and flu vaccinations are separate pictures, however they are often given on the similar go to.

The up to date boosters are meant to guard people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19, together with hospitalization and dying. Everybody 6 months of age and older who has had their major vaccination sequence is eligible to get the up to date booster two months following any COVID vaccine or booster dose.

Moreover, the Biden Administration has moved to make free at-home COVID-19 checks out there once more by the winter for a restricted time. Households can order one pack of 4 free checks by the U.S. Postal Service.

In the meantime, a post-Thanksgiving spike in COVID-19 circumstances continued however was trending downward. Previously week, the county Well being and Human Companies Company reported 4,821 lab-confirmed circumstances, down from 5,649 infections the earlier week.

A complete of 24 deaths from COVID have been reported because the final replace. The area’s cumulative totals elevated to five,608 deaths and 952,752 infections.

In the meantime, near 2.69 million or 80.4% of San Diegans obtained the first sequence of one of many authorized COVID-19 vaccines. The variety of bivalent boosters administered elevated to 474,245 or 19% of two,494,254 eligible San Diegans.

Influenza circumstances additionally declined week-over-week from 2,600 circumstances the earlier week to 1,603 new lab-confirmed circumstances of influenza this week. By this time final yr, 696 flu circumstances had been reported for the whole season, in comparison with the county’s present rely of 17,182.

One other seven San Diegans have died of the flu, rising the season’s cumulative whole to twenty.