Hawaii Health Department recommends new COVID boosters for children 5 and older

The Hawaii Department of Health today announced its recommendation of the COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccines for everyone ages 5 and older in lock step with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The recommendation follows federal approvals of the new bivalent boosters for younger children by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today.

FDA issued emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech’s bivalent COVID booster for children ages 5 to 11, and for Moderna’s bivalent COVID booster for children and teens ages 6 to 17. CDC swiftly followed suit with a recommendation of the bivalent boosters for everyone ages 5 and older.

“This is great news for parents who want to protect their young children,” said State Health Director Dr. Elizabeth “Libby” Char in a news release. “Bivalent boosters were already available for everyone 12 and older. Now kids ages 5-11 can benefit from these new boosters too.”

The updated bivalent boosters target both the original COVID strain and omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which DOH says account for almost all coronavirus cases in Hawaii.

The White House on Tuesday urged all eligible Americans to get the updated COVID-19 boosters by Halloween in order to have maximum protection against the coronavirus ahead of the holidays and a “challenging” virus season.

The new bivalent vaccines are to be administered as a single booster dose to those who previously completed a primary series of COVID-19 vaccines. They can only be administered if it has been at least two months after a person’s last primary dose or an earlier booster.

Those eligible can choose either a Pfizer and Moderna booster regardless of which vaccine they previously received.

To schedule a specific COVID booster or vaccine, visit vaccines.gov or DOH’s vaccine finder map at hawaiicovid19.com/vaccine.