PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Doctor’s offices and pharmacies across the state are now starting to receive new COVID-19 booster shots. A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Health Services says “providers using our system ordered 35,000 doses of the new booster, and those have arrived.”
The booster shots are combination or “bivalent” shots — half the original vaccine and half protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron versions now causing nearly all COVID-19 infections.
“We expect millions of people to get the shot this month as folks get back to school and work and back into their regular routines after the summer,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator.
Pharmacies like CVS are already giving out the new booster shot. In a statement, CVS says “individual CVS Pharmacy locations are receiving the bivalent COVID-19 boosters on a rolling basis over the next few days and weeks.” Select Fry’s Pharmacy locations will also receive new Pfizer or Moderna booster vaccines this week. A Fry’s spokesperson says as more doses are available, they hope to expand availability to more locations.
Pleasant Pediatrics tells Arizona’s Family it will receive the new shot today with plans to start administering shots as soon as they receive them.
Other pharmacies and doctor’s offices in the area likely have just received the new booster shot or will in the coming weeks and days.
You’re eligible for a booster shot at least two months after a completed primary vaccination or previous booster. People 12 and up can get the Pfizer booster and people 18 and up can get the Moderna one. The CDC expects to recommend updated COVID-19 boosters for other children in the coming weeks. If you’re eligible for the vaccine, you can get either kind. For more information on the vaccines, click/tap here.
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