Greene County to offer updated COVID boosters for children 5 to 11

Jacinda Snider, a collaborative pharmacist distributes COVID-19 booster shots at Grafton Oaks Nursing Home on Grafton Ave. Tuesday Jan. 11, 2022. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Jacinda Snider, a collaborative pharmacist distributes COVID-19 booster shots at Grafton Oaks Nursing Home on Grafton Ave. Tuesday Jan. 11, 2022. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Greene County Public Health will offer updated COVID-19 boosters this Friday to children 5 to 11 years old.

Pfizer will be the only booster offered at this time, Greene County Public Health said in a press release.

“Since children are back in school and people are resuming pre-pandemic activities and behaviors, there is the potential for increased risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19,” Greene County Public Health said. “GCPH is confident in the vaccine as an effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.”

Long-term effects from mild COVID-19 cases have the potential to affect children and updated bivalent boosters were created to contain original SARS-CoV-2 strains and the omicron BA.4/5 variants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

About 79% of the circulating strains are BA.5, and the rest are other omicron variants, the CDC continued.

People can walk in every Friday morning from 8:30 to 10 a.m. and in the afternoon from 2 to 3:30 p.m. for the vaccine.

“GCPH is confident in the vaccine as an effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” GCPH said.

Walk-ins are accepted and registration is also available online.

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