Following approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Wake County Public Health is preparing to offer updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for kids 5 to 11 years old and Moderna for kids 6 to 11 years old.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccine shipments have arrived are being distributed to county vaccine locations. Appointments will be available beginning Thursday, Oct. 20.
“These updated boosters are an added layer of protection as our kids head back to school and extracurricular activities this fall,” said Wake County Public Health Director Rebecca Kaufman. “Vaccines remain the most effective measure to protect our kids and our entire family from COVID-19 and prevent severe symptoms from the virus. We encourage all parents to consider these new boosters if their child is eligible.”
The updated COVID-19 boosters add Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein components to the current vaccine composition, helping to restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination. Those are the most common variants now circulating in the community.
Wake County Public Health has five vaccination locations throughout the county, including evening hours. There are also daily COVID-19 pop-up clinics happening at grocery stories, libraries, churches and community organizations. All locations and hours can be found at wakegov.com/vaccine.
Staying Updated
Visit Wake County’s multilingual COVID-19 webpage for the latest information on COVID-19. It features a set of frequently asked questions to educate residents, COVID-19 vaccine information, COVID-19 testing locations and the most current data on how the virus is impacting our county.
Also, look for important updates about COVID-19 on Wake County’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
