Where to get the new Omicron booster in Southern California

Updated COVID-19 booster photographs focusing on the newest dominant Omicron subvariants are right here and out there at quite a few areas.

“The upgraded shots will help protect you in the upcoming weeks and months,” Orange County well being officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said in a briefing Tuesday. “I want everybody to have a really good holiday season. But that means protecting yourself against the variants that are circulating.”

The up to date photographs are generally known as “bivalent” vaccines, as a result of they defend towards not solely the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which have dominated the U.S. this summer season, but in addition the authentic coronavirus pressure.

Here’s a information:

How to get a booster

• CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid are amongst the pharmacies that say they’re providing the new boosters. Appointments will be made on their respective web sites.

• The L.A. County Department of Public Health stated the up to date booster was out there as early as Wednesday at lots of of websites countywide, together with 12 operated by the company, greater than 700 cellular vaccine clinics and almost 250 neighborhood, pharmacy and clinic websites.
• L.A. County residents can search for areas at VaccinateLACounty.com. Residents may name (833) 540-0473 between 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., seven days every week.

• The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday started providing the new boosters at its city-run vaccine clinics. The metropolis’s schedule will be discovered on its website, the place appointments can be made or by calling (562) 570-4636.
• The Orange County Health Care Agency has began to provide the up to date booster photographs. Appointments can be found at othena.com.
• Some vaccine suppliers’ pc methods nonetheless haven’t been up to date but to mirror availability of the up to date Omicron booster. But “we know it’s already here in Orange County. It’s just a matter of time for those electronic systems to catch up,” Chinsio-Kwong stated. She prompt folks contact their pharmacy or healthcare supplier to see if the up to date booster has arrived.

• Here’s information about the up to date vaccines for Ventura County. “All booster doses for those 12 and older will be with the bivalent booster vaccine,” county stated on its web site.
• California’s MyTurn web site nonetheless hasn’t been up to date to mirror availability of the Omicron booster. Officials say the web site can be up to date quickly. Some counties’ web sites additionally haven’t been up to date.

Costs

• The vaccine stays freed from cost.

Supplies

L.A. County has already preordered about 170,000 doses and expects to obtain them between Tuesday and Friday.

California “has been allotted over 1 million doses, and will have ample supply for all those who are eligible,” the state Department of Public Health stated in a current assertion to The Times.

Eligibility

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that individuals ages 12 and older get the new booster photographs. To be eligible, residents want to have accomplished their major vaccination sequence and likewise be at the very least two months out from their final dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.

Types of vaccine

The FDA licensed the Omicron booster from Pfizer and BioNTech for these age 12 and older. The one from Moderna is obtainable just for adults 18 and older.