Newest COVID booster shots available in Sedgwick County; here’s where to find them

Sedgwick County has received a shipment of the new COVID-19 booster that is aimed at adding protection from the virus and related strains that are now driving new cases in Kansas, officials said Tuesday.

The new Pfizer-BioNTech booster comes amid concern about a fall and winter surge in cases. Those seasons have seen the largest spikes during the 2.5-year pandemic.

Anyone wanting the booster shot must meet these criteria: be 12 or older, have at least the two primary COVID shots, be at least two months from the last shot (either the primary shot or booster is fine) and be at least three months past a COVID infection.

The booster — called a bivalent because it targets both the original coronavirus and the Omicron subvariants (BA.4 and BA.5) now driving cases nationwide — will be available at the Sedgwick County Health Department’smain clinic, 2716 W. Central, and at mobile clinics.

To schedule a shot at the main clinic, call 316-660-7300. The mobile clinics accept walk-ins. A list of upcoming locations can be found at sedgwickcounty.org/covid-19/vaccine/clinic-locations. More information about vaccines is available at sedgwickcounty.org/covid-19/vaccine.

Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent boosters were approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the end of August. The next day, the CDC director endorsed a recommendation by one of its advisory groups to allow boosters of Pfizer for anyone 12 and older and Moderna people for 18 and older.

Several members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices had concerns about the lack of clinical data about the reformulated boosters but also noted the possible harm of waiting until November for data, according to the Washington Post.

Based on projections presented at the group’s day-long meeting, Matthew Daley, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, told the Post that waiting until November could have led to an additional 9,700 deaths and 137,000 hospitalizations.

Cases in Sedgwick County and Kansas are currently taking a slight dip after a little bump this summer. Fall and winter have historically seen the largest spikes in cases and deaths.

There have been more than 868,000 COVID-19 cases in Kansas and over 95 million in the U.S., data shows. Kansas has also seen more than 9,000 of the country’s 1-million plus deaths.

Kansas hasn’t seen more than five deaths daily since March. Daily deaths in January ranged from 16 to 41. January 2021 had one day where 52 people died of COVID, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data.

The CDC says about 224 million people, or 67.6% of the U.S. population, are fully vaccinated. The number of Americans getting a vaccine has decreased dramatically since the start of this year, CDC data shows. Only about 50% of eligible people have received a booster, according to the CDC.