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Bivalent boosters and Novavax now available to the Miami-Dade County Community to prevent the risk of serious illness
Starting September 9, Miami-Dade County will begin offering the recently authorized bivalent formulations of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in partnership with Nomi Health.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 18 years of age and older. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent, is authorized for use as a single booster dose in individuals 12 years of age and older.
The BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant are currently responsible for the majority of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and are predicted to continue circulating this fall and winter. The authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are expected to provide better protection against COVID-19 infection caused by the omicron variant.
“In Miami-Dade, we continue to do our part to offer all the approved, available vaccines to our residents to protect themselves, and others, from spreading this virus and from becoming seriously ill if infected,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniela Levine-Cava. “We are continuing to follow the recommendations of our top medical experts and ensure that vaccines are widely accessible to our entire county.”
These vaccines, also referred to as “updated boosters,” contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other common between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. The county will also offer the recently approved Novavax vaccine.
The Novavax vaccine is unlike previously available COVID-19 vaccines as it also provides similar protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, but using a manufacturing process that is closer to more traditional methods of vaccine manufacturing.
“We have continued to see high positivity rates, so we remind the community that vaccines continue to be available to all those eligible at our sites located all over Miami-Dade County. We invite the public to locate the most convenient site, along with their vaccine of choice to protect themselves and others from the risk of serious illness,” said Ron Goncalves, Florida President and General Manager for Nomi Health.