Maui Health Vaccine Clinic will reschedule existing booster appointments for individuals 12 years and older until new bivalent boosters are available on Maui.

The Hawaii Department of Health has placed its first order for the “newest booster” and is expected to arrive within days. Maui Health’s vaccine clinic will administer updated (bivalent) boosters on Friday, September 9, 2022 upon receipt.

The change follows yesterday’s approval by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of new bivalent COVID-19 boosters in Pfizer-BioNTech for people 12 and older and Moderna for people 18 and older.

The Maui Health Vaccine Clinic will provide only the original monovalent mRNA for COVID-19 as a booster for children ages 5-11. and older.

CDC continues to recommend Pfizer monovalent boosters for children ages 5 to 11, and the Maui Health Vaccine Clinic at Maui Memorial Medical Center will continue to offer individual appointments and walk-ins for ages 5 to 11. I accept.

The bivalent vaccine, which officials now call an ‘updated booster’, has been redesigned to protect against both the original COVID-19 strain and the latest Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5. . In the United States and Hawaii, both strains now account for 95% of all COVID-19 cases in Hawaii.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, bivalent vaccines contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. One is one of the original strains of SARS-CoV-2 and the other is a common strain among BAs. BA.5 lineage of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.

Maui Health CEO Mike Rembis said: “It is important that everyone who qualifies receives the latest boosters as soon as they are available on Maui. We will continue to be partners.”

According to FDA:

• Individuals 12 years of age and older are eligible to receive one booster dose. Pfizer – BioNTech Bivalent if at least 2 months have passed since completing the COVID-19 vaccine, primary vaccination, or if receiving an approved or most recent booster dose of an approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine .
• Individuals over the age of 18 are eligible to receive one booster dose. Moderna Bivalent if at least 2 months have passed since completing the COVID-19 vaccine, primary vaccination, or if receiving an approved or most recent booster dose of an approved monovalent COVID-19 vaccine .

Maui Health opened a community vaccine clinic in December 2020 and has administered nearly 86,000 vaccines since. The Vaccine Clinic is open every Friday from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm and from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

For the latest information, visit mauihealth.org/covidvaccine.