The Virginia Department of Health announced Friday that third shots of coronavirus vaccines will soon become available for immunocompromised residents to better protect them as the delta variant continues to surge.
The announcement Friday evening came shortly after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people with significantly compromised immune systems get a third dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. The CDC guidance followed a late Thursday announcement from U.S. regulators saying transplant recipients and others with severely weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
The state health department says vaccine providers are expected to make third doses available over the next several days.
“This is important additional protection for people who have impaired immune systems,” said Virginia Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver.
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Cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations are both on the rise in Virginia, although the state is not currently facing the same dire conditions as others in the South.
