Beginning next week, some Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will be able to get Moderna’s new Bivalent vaccine, and Public Health is already eying how they can expand the eligibility.
Yesterday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald unveiled the province’s plans for a fall/winter COVID vaccination campaign.
The province is expecting its first 63,000 doses of the vaccine later this month, with more to follow.
Initially, that vaccine will be reserved for those in certain high-risk groups, but Dr. Fitzgerald says they are already looking at potentially expanding the eligibility—but that is dependent on how much supply the province gets.
She says it is difficult to gauge what the uptake will be like at this stage. They want to see the initial uptake first, and over the next few weeks, they may have more information about expanded eligibility.
Meanwhile, Fitzgerald says it is too early to tell whether such vaccine campaigns in the fall/winter will become the norm moving forward.
She says because immunity does wane over time it is looking like yearly campaigns may be the way they have to go. But she says they are still learning about what the long-term COVID strategy may have to be.