Updated COVID-19 boosters becoming available in Payne County

Beau Simmons, Stillwater NewsPress, Okla.
·2 min read

Sep. 12—COVID-19 boosters updated for the Omicron variant are making their way into Payne County and surrounding areas.

The bivalent boosters for Pfizer and Moderna started arriving in Oklahoma earlier this month.

According to the vaccines.gov website, the nearest places with the newest boosters include the Main Street Walgreens in Stillwater — carrying Moderna; Yale Drug — carrying Pfizer and Moderna; Main Street Cushing Walgreens — carrying Moderna and Foster Corner Drug in Perry, carrying both.

The list may not reflect real-time availability of the vaccines, so people may still need to check with their local pharmacies. Charlie's Drug told the News Press they expect the boosters "at any time" and Tiger Drug said the were told boosters could arrive some time near the end of this week, and would be making announcements via social media on availability and scheduling. CVS has an online portal for scheduling.

The boosters are for people who have completed the primary vaccine series.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the following for age groups:

—People ages 6 months through 4 years should get all COVID-19 primary series doses.

—People ages 5 years and older should get all primary series doses, and the booster dose recommended for them by CDC, if eligible.

—People ages 5 years to 11 years are currently recommended to get the original (monovalent) booster.

—People ages 12 years and older are recommended to receive one updated Pfizer or Moderna (bivalent) booster. This includes people who have received all primary series doses and people who have previously received one or more original (monovalent) boosters.

—At this time, people aged 12 years to 17 years can only receive the updated Pfizer bivalent booster.

Oklahoma has been among the top states reporting new COVID cases per population with a seven-day case rate of 269.1 per 100,000, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Oklahoma State University's COVID-19 dashboard reports the Payne County case rate as 304.6 as of Sept. 8.

Stillwater had 379 active reported cases on Sept. 4, according to OSDH. That number is considered an underestimate due to home tests and or cases that go unreported. OSU has reported 217 active cases among students and employees.