TEXAS, USA — Doses of updated COVID-19 booster vaccines are expected to begin shipping over the next few days and arriving at Texas health care providers next week, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said Friday.
The DSHS said the CDC has allocated about 900,000 does of the updated boosters to Texas, including 502,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 192,800 does of the Moderna vaccine available for order by health care providers. Another approximately 200,000 doses will be available through large retail pharmacies like CVS, H-E-B, Walgreens and Walmart.
The DSHS said the updated "bivalent" vaccines are designed to protect against the original COVID-19 strain and the omicron variant. The department said omicron is responsible for more than 99% of the COVID-19 cases in Texas over the past month.
The updated boosters are single doses that use the same mRNA technology as the original Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and they will be available in many of the same locations. The DSHS said the updated Pfizer booster is authorized for people 12 years old and older and the Moderna booster is authorized for people 18 and older.
Anyone can get the updated booster as long as it has been at least two months since they completed any primary COVID-19 vaccine series or received a previous booster. You should talk to your health care provider about the best timing.
Texans can use the vaccine finder at vaccines.gov to locate a provider with doses of the updated boosters in stock starting next week.
The DSHS said about 47 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Texas since late 2020. Eighteen million Texans have been fully vaccinated and 7.4 million have received at least one previous booster.
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