Drugstore chains such as CVS Health and Walgreens will launch updated Covid-19 vaccines as soon as this week, the chains announced on Wednesday.
The news comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday approved updated vaccines to tackle new variants, such as Eris and BA.2.86, that have caused a rise in US Covid cases and hospitalizations.
Walgreens said it will start making appointments for the updated vaccines next Monday, but it may start taking appointments earlier as its stores receive vaccines this week.
Rite Aid, meanwhile, said appointments would be live Friday.
CVS said some pharmacies will receive the new vaccines on Wednesday, and all pharmacy locations are expected to have vaccinations in stock by early next week.
CVS Health, Walgreens and Rite Aid should have updated Covid-19 vaccines as early as this week, the chains announced Wednesday
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated vaccines, made by Pfizer and Moderna, for all Americans age 12 and older. The agency also approved the shots for emergency use in children between the ages of six months and 11 years.
The government has said the updated shots will still be free for most Americans with health insurance. However, the US has paid about $26 per dose of the vaccine, but some manufacturers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, plan to increase the price to $130 when the vaccines are sold on the private market this fall.
The updated shots are designed to improve protection against newer variants.
It is unclear when other pharmacies, such as Walmart, will start offering the vaccines. Health officials hope to ramp up protection before winter as Covid rates rise across the country for the first time this year – although top experts expect it will be another mild surge.
Even Americans who have never had a Covid shot are eligible.
But the appetite for more Covid vaccines is waning. Nearly six in 10 Americans over 65 failed to get last year’s bivalent booster shot, and experts believe even fewer will emerge once the newly formulated Covid vaccines are on the market.
However, new variants such as Eris and BA.2.86 have led to an increase in cases and hospitalizations, increasing demand for vaccines.
Covid hospitalizations have risen since late summer, although – thanks to some lingering immunity from previous vaccinations and infections – not nearly as much as this time last year.
Data from the CDC showed that 17,400 patients were admitted to hospitals nationwide in the last week of August, a 16 percent increase from the previous seven-day period.
Despite the increase, interest rates remain historically low. By comparison, at the height of the pandemic in January 2021, there were 150,000 Covid admissions per week, and a week earlier this year hospital admissions reached as high as 44,000.
But protection wanes over time, and the coronavirus is constantly spawning new variants that can evade previous immunity.
The FDA said that from the age of five, most people can receive a single dose, even if they have never had a Covid shot before.
Children aged five and over can receive a single dose of a booster Covid vaccine, as long as it has been at least two months since their last Covid injection.
Children between six months and four years old, on the other hand, are eligible for one or two doses of the booster shot. The timing of the injections will depend on when they received their last Covid vaccine.
If the child is under five years old and has not yet received any Covid vaccines, they can receive three doses of the Pfizer booster or two doses of the Moderna booster.
The agency said, “The FDA is confident in the safety and effectiveness of these updated vaccines, and the agency’s benefit-risk assessment shows that the benefits of these vaccines for persons 6 months of age and older outweigh their risks.”
Younger children may need additional doses depending on their history of Covid infections and vaccinations.
The latest shots are aimed at an Omicron variant called XBB.1.5. That particular strain is no longer dominant.
Yet it is so close to the coronavirus strains that cause most Covid illnesses today that the FDA determined it would provide good cross-protection.
Initial tests show it is also effective at protecting against BA.2.86, which has sparked fears of a new Covid wave.
There are also promising signs that it will work against the EG.5 Covid variant, also known as Eris, which is currently dominant in the US.