‘All Americans to get Covid-19 booster’: Joe Biden as new wave looms

US President Joe Biden plans to urge all Americans to get a Covid-19 booster shot this autumn to counter a new wave of infections reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a White House official on Sunday as quoted by the news agency Reuters. 

Moderna on Thursday said that initial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the "Eris" and "Fornax" subvariants in humans. Moderna and other Covid-19 vaccine makers Novavax, Pfizer, and German partner BioNTech SE have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant.

Pending approval from health regulators in the United States and Europe, the companies expect the updated shots to be available in the coming weeks for the autumn vaccination season.

Referring to the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, the official said, “We will be encouraging all Americans to get those boosters in addition to flu shots and RSV shots", as per Reuters reports. 

Earlier on August 17, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that they are tracking a newly identified lineage of the Covid-19 virus. This lineage has been designated as BA.2.86 and has been identified in the United States, Denmark, and Israel.

The CDC emphasized that while they continue to gather information about the BA.2.86 lineage, their guidance for protecting oneself from Covid-19 remains unchanged. The CDC shared this information through a post on the messaging platform X.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) also discussed BA.2.86 in a post on X, classifying it as a "variant under monitoring" due to the numerous mutations it carries. 

WHO reported that only a few sequences of this variant have been identified in a limited number of countries so far. It also they are currently monitoring three variants of interest and seven variants under monitoring.

It further emphasized the ongoing need for improved surveillance, sequencing, and reporting of Covid-19, as the virus continues to circulate and undergo changes.

(With Reuters inputs)