As new variants of COVID are making the rounds, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have approved a new round of COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccines were approved by the FDA Monday for people 12 and older, and for emergency use for children aged six months to 11 years old. The CDC followed suit Tuesday, with agency director Mandy Cohen expected to sign off on the approval process.
They’re manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer and are meant to target Omicron variants of the virus - specifically the XBB.1.5 subvariant. Omicron is the world’s most prevalent variant of COVID.
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ COVID-19 vaccination dashboard says 67 percent of Kentuckians have gotten one dose of a vaccine, or a little more than three million people. 58 percent of the population, or more than two-and-a-half-million people, are fully vaccinated.
The new round of vaccines will be free for those with health insurance coverage. They’ll be made available to major pharmacies in the coming days.
