Where and how soon can you get the new COVID-19 bivalent booster?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Across WAVE Country, providers are giving patients a new booster.

On Sept. 1, the CDC endorsed updated COVID-19 boosters. The boosters are called bivalent boosters; meaning they are made to better protect against the omicron sub variants BA 4 and BA 5.

Pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens are now offering the boosters.

Most of the Walgreens in the area have the vaccines in stock. CVS’s in the area said all their stores should be stocked soon.

Both pharmacies recommend scheduling online and signing up to get a flu shot at the same time.

“This is a tool that you can use to protect yourself and your family from an unnecessary hospitalization and potentially an unnecessary death,” Dr. Emily Volk, CMO of Baptist Health Floyd said.

Patients 12 and older can get Pfizer’s new booster and 18 and older for Moderna’s as long as it’s been 2 months since your last booster or since completing the primary vaccine series. The recommendations for children under 12 remain the same.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Emily Volk says she believes the new shots come just in time to fight current COVID-19 cases Jefferson County.

“There’s still about 450 people every day dying from COVID 19 in the U-S, the majority of them are unvaccinated,” Dr. Volk said.

Baptist Health hospitals said they are not distributing the vaccine in their offices, but encouraging everyone to get the booster at your local pharmacy. If you haven gotten any vaccine yet, the original shots are still available.

”I am hopeful that the case count will continue to fall. That is going to be a lot more likely the more people who choose to get the booster,” Dr. Emily Volk said. ”I would say anyone over 50 absolutely should go get it. The only thing that would stand in the way is if you recently had a COVID-19 infection; you may want to wait a couple of months.”

COVID-19 numbers in Jefferson County can be found here.

You can check for Norton Healthcare’s appointments on the Norton Healthcare and Norton Children’s websites.

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