The authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine, announced on September 28, targets the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus.
For children over five years old, the updated vaccine will be administered in a single dose. For children between six months and five years who have not received the primary series, they must receive three doses.
Pfizer Canada said it expects the newly formulated vaccine to be available in the coming weeks before the respiratory virus season is forecast to peak.
The updated vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Moderna was approved earlier this month.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, chief provincial health officer in British Columbia, said Thursday that the new and updated vaccines show good protection against all of the Omicron subvariants currently circulating. So that’s good news, she added.
Available rapid antigen tests also continue to work, Henry said.
The new vaccines are not considered reinforcements against Covid-19 but rather updates.
Foto: (Kristopher Radder/The Associated Press)
Canada will have ample supply of the new mRNA vaccine formulation available in the fall of 2023, Health Canada said in a statement.
Health authorities are also reviewing the latest vaccine proposed by the pharmaceutical company Novavax for people over 12 years of age.
Federal officials are not calling the new vaccines boosters. Rather, they consider them updated options similar to annual flu vaccines.
The latest report from the Public Health Agency of Canada for the week ending September 23 shows that test positivity for the virus that causes Covid-19 has increased since early July.
The agency also said that the activity of common cold viruses, known as enteroviruses and rhinoviruses, is increasing, as expected for this time of year.
Sources: CBC / A. Zafar
Adaptation: RCI / R. Valencia
2023-09-29 15:12:29
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