COVID Booster Uptake ‘Slow and Sluggish’ in Bay Area

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(TNS) – Bay Area health officials are worried that not enough people are rolling up their sleeves to get the updated bivalent COVID-19 booster shots ahead of the upcoming holiday season.

“What we’ve seen so far is a very slow and sluggish uptake of these boosters,” Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer, said at a briefing Monday. “Among those who are eligible, just 11% of people living in our county have gotten their booster shot.”

Other counties in the region reported similar numbers or lower, in stark contrast to the robust demand for the initial series of COVID vaccines last year. Health officials have warned of another potentially devastating winter surge — especially as new, immune-evasive virus variants emerge and more people move indoors for social activities — if people let their protection fade.

“I want to address a question head-on, and that question is, ‘Do I really need this bivalent booster?'” Cody said, tapping the podium. “And to cut to the conclusion, yes, you do. You need your bivalent booster.”

Americans appear to have grown tired of repeated calls to get boosted against COVID-19 but experts say the updated shots come with an added benefit: They contain half the recipe that targeted the original coronavirus strain and half protection against the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 omicron versions.

These combination or “bivalent” boosters are designed to broaden immune defenses so that people are better protected against serious illness whether they encounter an omicron relative in the coming months — or a different mutant that’s more like the original virus.

“This vaccine prevents hospitalization and death,” Cody said, adding the booster is also likely to shorten the period of illness for those who do get infected and reduce the risk of long COVID.

Nationally, about 14.8 million Americans have received the updated COVID-19 booster shots since they became available in early September, based on numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a little under 7% of the more than 209 million vaccinated people who are eligible.

In Alameda County, uptake is trailing the national average at 6.7% among eligible residents — a figure health officials are working hard to improve.

Cody acknowledged that “people are fatigued from managing the pandemic,” and “that’s completely understandable,” but said getting annual shots should become a habit.

The CDC recommends that everyone ages 5 and older get an updated COVID-19 booster alongside a flu vaccine this fall.

While many public health departments nationwide have scaled back their vaccine services, instead pointing people to pharmacies and their health care providers to get the new shots, Bay Area counties continue to offer shots at community clinics.

There is some concern that if people try to time their shots to the beginning of the next surge, it may be too late, especially with widely reported frustrations over finding appointments due to the lack of new federal COVID funding and staff shortages at drugstores.

“Now is the time to get one with winter coming,” said Matt Brown , spokesperson for Sonoma County’s health department. He noted that at some clinics, the wait time for the earliest available appointments is at least two to three weeks.

After steadily decreasing since mid-July following the recent wave caused by omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, California’s COVID-19 numbers appear to have hit another plateau. The state is tracking about 8.2 new daily cases per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, down from 8.3 per 100,000 a week ago, according to health department data. The statewide test-positivity rate also remains unchanged at 4.7%.

But the case numbers may be misleading with the number of coronavirus tests performed across the state falling steeply, with the official sites administering fewer than 30,000 tests daily — the lowest number since April 2020. By comparison, in January, state sites administered more than 834,000 coronavirus tests per day.

California is still tallying a death toll of 19 people each day due to the virus, and there are 1,746 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, a modest decrease from the 1,800 admissions recorded at the beginning of the month.

Concern is rapidly growing over emerging omicron coronavirus variant BQ.1 and its sibling BQ.1.1, which experts say appear to be strong candidates for a winter surge in the U.S. and could knock the BA.5 variant out of its dominant spot.