City to Receive 600 Doses of Newly-Approved Bivalent BA.4/BA.5 COVID-19 Vaccine

With the summer nearing a close and fall/winter weather ahead — pushing more people indoors — City and County health officials on Tuesday urged residents to get vaccinated and take precautions to prevent spread of the virus — and lower the odds of new variants evolving that could lead to another surge in infections.

“As the risk of respiratory diseases increases during the fall and winter seasons, continue to practice additional measures to reduce the spread of viruses,” urged Pasadena Public Health dept. Public Information Officer Adrienne Kung.

Newly approved booster shots designed to target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron strain of the virus will be available in Pasadena this week, Kung said. The City expects to receive 600 doses. Kung said those who are eligible can visit MyTurn.CA.gov to find a location offering bivalent booster vaccines.

Los Angeles County is scheduled to offer the new boosters starting Wednesday. Details on where the vaccines will be available are at vaccinatelacounty.com, or in Spanish, vacunatelosangeles.com.

According to Kung, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends a single booster dose of an updated bivalent BA.4/BA.5 COVID-19 vaccine among people 12 years and older who have completed a primary COVID-19 vaccine series. The Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent BA.4/BA.5 variant vaccine is authorized for use in people 12 years and older and the Moderna bivalent BA.4/BA.5 variant vaccine is authorized for use in people 18 years and older, including individuals who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.

Those 12 years and older who are eligible for their first or subsequent booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine should receive a bivalent vaccine, as monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for this age group are no longer authorized for booster doses, Kung said. COVID-19 bivalent BA.4/BA.5 variant vaccines should be administered as a booster no sooner than two months after a prior dose of COVID-19 vaccine has been used to complete the primary series or as a booster.

The bivalent booster doses more closely match currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants and will improve protection against COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths. Given the anticipated burden of COVID-19 infections this fall/winter season with variants of concern the California Department of Public Health urges vaccination against COVID-19 for everyone eligible.