New Hampshire public health officials say they see a dangerous combination ahead: a winter rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, and low interest in coronavirus booster shots, especially the new bivalent dose targeted at omicron.
Approximately half of Granite Staters eligible for the first booster have gotten one and far fewer, about 35 percent, have received a second, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has not reported state-level uptakes of the new bivalent booster but has put the national rate at just 4 percent.
Meanwhile, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported in September that half the country had heard “very little” or nothing about the latest booster, which became available last month and is targeted at COVID-19 and the omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
Read the full story at NH Bulletin
Current Issue - May 2024