A new Moderna COVID-19 vaccine that targets the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 is undergoing lot release testing and is expected to be available by next week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that people aged 65 or older would be first in line for the product.
Moderna’s Spikevax XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday last week.
CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said the vaccine is expected to be available by the end of this month, hopefully before the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend from Friday next week to Oct. 1, with people aged 65 or older to be prioritized.
Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control
“Our long-term monitoring data show that the majority of severe COVID-19 and COVID-19-related cases are people aged 65 or older,” Tseng said, adding that eligibility would be expanded according to vaccination rates.
CDC data showed that 78 percent of people hospitalized for COVID-19 were aged 65 or older.
The first shipment of the vaccine to Taiwan consisted of about 700,000 doses, with more expected in the next few months to take the total to about 2 million doses by the end of next month and 6 million by the end of the year, the CDC said.
There are two types of multi-dose vials. One has five doses of 0.5mL, with each dose containing 50 micrograms of the mRNA ingredient, and the other has 10 doses of 0.25mL, with each dose containing 25 micrograms of the mRNA ingredient, Tseng said, adding that the latter is recommended for children aged six months to 11 years.
For children aged six months to four years, the CDC recommends two doses at least 28 days apart for those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, one dose for those who have received a first dose at least 28 days prior and one dose for those who have finished a primary series of two doses at least 84 days earlier, she said.
The CDC also recommends one 0.25mL dose for children aged five to 11 years who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, and one 0.5mL dose for people aged 12 or older who have been vaccinated, with the most recent dose being at least 84 days prior, she said.
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