By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
SEARHC expects the new bivalent COVID booster to arrive in Sitka in the next two weeks, and be available soon after that, officials said Friday.
“It’s in the pipeline, we should be seeing it in the next two weeks,” said Dr. Elliot Bruhl, SEARHC senior vice president and chief medical officer, on Friday.
He said the bivalent booster has been ordered for all the SEARHC clinics. It contains elements of the original vaccine, and is active against the original virus, as well as Delta, and the Omicron BA4 and BA5 variants.
“I expect it’s going to be in our hands in the next 10 to 14 days,” Bruhl said Friday. “We just don’t know, but we’ve ordered it and we’re going to provide it at all of our outpatient locations.”
COVID vaccines are free to the public, the CDC and providers say.
Harry Race and White’s pharmacies said on its website sitkapharmacies.com that the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines have been pre-ordered, and the pharmacy is waiting for word on when to expect them.
“Please keep checking back, as clinic information will be updated ASAP,” the webpage says.
The bivalent vaccine has been FDA-approved for those ages 12 and up for the Pfizer-brand vaccine and 18 and up for Moderna-brand, the CDC said.
Distributions started after the FDA authorized the shots August 31.
Bruhl said he didn’t know if SEARHC would be holding clinics specifically for the bivalent booster but it probably would depend on the level of interest. He said he didn’t know how soon SEARHC could begin administering the bivalent, since “it’s not in our hands yet.”
He said the best way to get the booster, when they are available, is to sign up to be contacted, through the QR code or using the SEARHC registration form from the website at searhc.org/covid-19/. Harry Race Pharmacy will also have signups.
Bruhl also reminded the public about staying up-to-date on seasonal flu shots.
“Those are just as important if not more important,” he said.
The bivalent booster targets the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. As of a week ago, BA.5 accounted for at least 87% of new U.S. cases. BA.4 and a similar sublineage, BA.4.6, made up around 11%, the CDC said.
The FDA authorization says that individuals are eligible for a bivalent booster if it has been at least two months since they completed primary vaccination or received the most recent booster dose with a monovalent COVID vaccine.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a prepared statement Thursday on the CDC website, “The updated Covid-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating Covid-19 variant. They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants,”
The number of cases has been dropping but Peter Marks, the top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, said Wednesday that the approval of reformulated boosters comes as the agency is “looking at a possible fall wave, with a peak around December 1.”
Sitka is currently at the “low” community level with 11 cases in the last week.
