Omicron Covid: Latest News

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects COVID-19 vaccine boosters targeting circulating variants of the virus to be available for children aged 5-11 years by mid-October.

COVID-19 vaccine that protects against the Omicron variant.Sylvia Jones says long-term care residents and health-care workers will receive the doses first.Health Canada said last week it has approved the new shot from Moderna, which targets both the original strain of the novel coronavirus and the original Omicron variant.

bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first vaccine specifically targeting the Omicron variant to get approval for the Canadian market.According to the drug authorization listing, the bivalent booster will be a half-dose of the amount delivered in the primary doses of the vaccine, keeping it in line with the dose delivered in boosters so far.The Omicron booster is authorized only for Canadians over the age of 18 at this time.Side effects are listed as “mild” and similar to those experienced with the regular booster doses: muscle aches, chills, headache, fever and pain at the injection site. Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccines: Could updated shots prevent a fall wave? Moderna, which submitted its bivalent vaccine candidate to Health Canada in June, said at the time that trial data showed when given as a fourth dose, its variant-adapted shot raised virus-neutralizing antibodies by eight-fold against Omicron.Ottawa has signed an agreement with Moderna to provide 12 million doses of its updated shot for 2022 and 2023.