The article below is a top story from this week's ACTION newsletter—Care Providers of Minnesota's weekly newsletter for members. The newsletter focuses on current legislative issues, regulations, long-term care trends, and other Association news. Each Thursday evening, it is delivered to your inbox. To sign up for ACTION, contact Lisa Foss Olson (952-851-2483). To learn more about membership, visit our Become a Member page.

COVID-19 preparation for September bivalent booster


Patti Cullen, CAE
By Patti Cullen, CAE  |  August 26, 2022  |  All members



The new COVID-19 booster is coming sooner than we expected! We have been holding discussions this past week with our colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) on state distribution plans for the new bivalent booster, which is now expected to be here in early September. 

The bivalent booster is the revised COVID-19 booster more responsive to the latest omicron versions of the COVID-19 virus. We are working through the questions such as the expected number of doses, clinical recommendations on whether to do flu vaccines with the booster, whether the Moderna or Pfizer brand is preferable depending on past boosters, whether this availability changes the “up to date” designation. Well, you get the drift—we are just starting to work through the issues.

Here is what we do know:

  • We expect the issuance of an emergency use authorization (EUA) of bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters, and an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting to develop the recommendations for the Moderna and Pfizer bivalent vaccine boosters any day
  • Vaccine is expected to be delivered to Minnesota between September 6–13, but we will share updates on confirmed dates as things are finalized at the federal level
  • This vaccine is for boosters only in people with a complete primary series
  • The Pfizer bivalent vaccine is anticipated to be available for people age 12 and older; the Moderna bivalent vaccine is anticipated to be available for people age 18 and older

What should you do right now? It would be helpful for you to get a sense of booster availability from your pharmacy partners in the field—do they expect enough doses to cover you?? If there will be an issue will access, let us know, as our discussions with our MDH partners will be continuing over the next weeks.

We expect many of the questions to be addressed at the next MDH Long Term Care COVID-19 Conference call, scheduled for September 7, 2022, at 3:30. If you haven’t registered yet, go here to do so: https://minnesotaevents.webex.com/minnesotaevents/j.php?RGID=r3324641a7ede01572e4358e8f5dda71a.  




Patti Cullen, CAE  |  President/CEO  |   pcullen@careproviders.org  |  952-851-2487

 

 


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Care Providers of Minnesota is a non-profit membership association with the mission to Empower Members to Performance Excellence. Our 900+ members across Minnesota represent non-profit and for-profit organizations providing services along the full spectrum of post-acute care and long-term services and support. We are the state affiliate for the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, and with our national partners we provide solutions for quality care.


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