BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The CDC has approved new protection against the latest COVID-19 variant — and it’s already on its way to Louisiana.
“You know, we still see a number of patients in our EDs and our emergency rooms coming in,” said Dr. Aldo Russo, medical director at Ochsner.
Doctors across the state say this new booster is different from the rest with a new name called Bivalent vaccine.
“Bivalent vaccines mean that it covers both the original coronavirus and as well as the now commonly circulating BA4, BA5 omicron variants,” explained Northwell Health Vaccination Progam Medical Director Dr. Matthew Harris.
The Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Greg Poland worries with no one taking precautions anymore, he predicts more surges with newer variants. And with hundreds of Americans still dying from COVID-19 each day, health experts believe getting regularly updated COVID shots will become the new normal.
“We want to get into the cadence and the rhythm of about once per year get an annual shot,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor.
Even though Louisiana numbers have decreased, doctors still want you to remember safety first.
“If you’re going to be in a closed environment with poor ventilation is to make sure that you wear a mask, wash your hands, and obviously get the original vaccine,” Russo said.
The new booster will be available at the end of this month. But in order to get it, you have to have already gotten the previous booster shots at least two months ago.
For more information, click here. To find a COVID-19 vaccine location, visit ldh.la.gov/covidvaccine-locations.
