The state Department of Health recommends everyone age 5 and older receive the COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued Emergency Use Authorization for the new boosters manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech for children ages 5-11 and Moderna for children ages 6-17. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed the news and recommends bivalent boosters for everyone age 5 and older.
“This is great news for parents who want to protect their young children. Bivalent boosters were already available for everyone 12 and older. Now kids ages 5-11 can benefit from these new boosters too,” state Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Char said in a statement.
The bivalent boosters are the first vaccines designed specifically to protect against COVID and its most common forms in Hawaiʻi — the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.
The state says the two subvariants account for almost all of the COVID cases in the state.
More information can be found at vaccines.gov or at hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine.
