HONOLULU – The Hawai‘i Department of Health (DOH) recommends the use of the first bivalent booster vaccines designed specifically to protect against original COVID-19 and the most common forms of COVID-19 in Hawai‘i, the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.The BA.5 subvariant accounts for an estimated 91% of the COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i.
The BA.4 subvariant accounts for an additional 4% of the cases in Hawai‘i.“The COVID-19 boosters we have been using do a good job of protecting us against severe illness.
The new bivalent boosters are an upgrade because they take into account mutations of the COVID-19 virus to specifically address Omicron subvariants,” said State Health Director Dr.
Elizabeth Char, FACEP.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued Emergency Use Authorization for the bivalent COVID-19 boosters yesterday.The U.S.