Order placed for next round of COVID booster vaccines in W.Va.; approvals still needed

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The director of the West Virginia Interagency task force said an order has been placed for the next round of COVID-19 booster vaccines.

During the state’s coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, task force director James Hoyer announced that the medication has been geared to blunt the main virus along with the BA.4 and the BA.5 variants. The BA-5 variant is the state’s dominant strain, appearing in 82.7% of tested sequences.

“Going forward, once the booster is authorized by the FDA and then ultimately recommended by the CDC, even though we’ve been given the opportunity to order, there are still approvals that have to go in place before it will be shipped to the states,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer said the focus will be based again on “the number of West Virginians we’ve lost in these age categories. We are going to focus on long-term care facilities, persons over the age of 65, those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised and also health care workers and first responders.”

The new booster will not be appropriate for everyone, Hoyer said. For the shot to be effective, you must first receive the main COVID-19 vaccine.