Bivalent Boosters Available and Encouraged

The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency is encouraging San Diegans to stay current on their COVID-19 vaccine doses ahead of the upcoming winter months.

“COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are our best protection against the virus and I encourage anyone who is eligible for a booster to get one,” said Wilma J. Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “While COVID-19 numbers are currently trending down, the virus remains active and infectious in our community and we anticipate more cases in the coming months as people move activities indoors.”

So far, close to 1.45 million San Diegans have received a regular booster since they became available. The County has administered more than 400 bivalent boosters since limited supplies started arriving earlier this month, while the total from all providers has surpassed 34,000.

The new bivalent boosters were developed to generate an immune response from the original COVID-19 virus, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. The Omicron variants are still causing the majority of new COVID-19 infections in the region.

The Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent booster is available for individuals age 12 and older. Moderna bivalent boosters are authorized for those age 18 and older, but are currently not readily available in the region as the County is awaiting additional vaccine allocations from the state.

The bivalent boosters have not yet been authorized for children under the age of 12. Youths in that age group can get boosted with the previous version of the monovalent Pfizer vaccine.

San Diegans must be fully vaccinated with the primary series of one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines before receiving a bivalent booster, meaning they must have received the two-dose primary series of Pfizer, Moderna, or the relatively new Novavax. All of those vaccines remain widely available. Also eligible for the bivalent booster are those who received at least one shot of the Janssen vaccine, which is no longer widely available.

Anyone who wants to get a bivalent booster must wait at least eight weeks after they received a previous COVID-19 vaccine until they are eligible. In addition, anyone who is fully vaccinated and recently tested positive for COVID-19, should wait three months after infection to get a bivalent booster.

Data Reporting Changes

As COVID-19 activity continues to trend down in the region, and to align with the state’s reporting frequency, the County will transition to reporting COVID-19 data once a week.

Starting next week, local COVID-19 data will be updated on the coronavirus-sd.com page on Thursdays only, instead of twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. The County’s regular COVID-19 news release will continue to be distributed once a week on Thursdays.

Vaccination Progress:

Received at least one shot: More than 3.02 million or 90.4% of San Diegans age six months and older are at least partially vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated: More than 2.67 million or 80.0%.
Boosters administered: 1,447,477 or 59% of 2,455,439 eligible San Diegans.
More vaccination information can be found at coronavirus-sd.com/vaccine.

Deaths:

Nine additional deaths were reported since the last report on Sept. 8, 2022. The region’s total is 5,483.
Of the nine additional deaths, five were women and four were men. They died between Aug. 25, 2022 and Sept. 10, 2022; five deaths occurred in the past two weeks.
Five of the people who died were 80 years or older, three were in their 70s and one was in their 60s.
Five were fully vaccinated and four were not.
All had underlying medical conditions.

Cases, Case Rates and Testing:

1,251 COVID-19 cases were reported to the County in the past three days (Sept. 12 to Sept. 14, 2022). The region’s total is now 918,279.
2,840 cases were reported in the past week (Sept. 8 through Sept. 14) compared to 2,797 infections identified the previous week (Sept. 1 through Sept. 7).
San Diego County’s case rate per 100,000 residents 12 years of age and older is 17.59 for people fully vaccinated and boosted, 10.51 for fully vaccinated people and 35.77 for not fully vaccinated San Diegans.
7,176 tests were reported to the County on Sept. 10, and the percentage of new positive cases was 4.6% (Data through Sept. 10).
The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases, among tests reported through Sept. 10, is 5.7%.