Forsyth County public health officials are gearing up to provide COVID-19 booster shots to more North Carolinians after the Food and Drug Administration authorized them for high-risk adults on Wednesday.
The FDA's decision means adults who received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at least six months ago are now eligible for a booster if they are over the age of 65 or are at high risk of serious complications due to certain health conditions or frequent workplace exposure to the virus.
Forsyth County Public Health Department has been offering third doses to immunocompromised people for over a month now. Director Joshua Swift says they haven't begun administering boosters to the newly eligible groups yet because they're awaiting guidance from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
But he says when they get the state's OK the rollout will be on a smaller scale than it was in the winter or spring.
“Just because you came to the health department last time or to the fairgrounds, we are in a whole different place now, and there's a lot more vaccine providers available in the community," says Swift. "We're not going to stand up the large vaccine clinic that we had at the fairgrounds.”
Swift says people looking to get their boosters should ask their primary care doctors to refer them to a vaccination clinic.