HSC acknowledge new dual-strain vaccine

Tuesday 16 August 2022

The Committee for Health & Social Care says it has taken note of the United Kingdom’s decision to approve a new covid vaccine designed to tackle two different variants of the virus.

The bivalent vaccine, manufactured by Moderna, targets both the original strain of covid which emerged in late 2019, and the first strain of Omicron which became dominant last winter.

The UK became the first country to approve this new vaccine yesterday, and Moderna says it can supply millions of doses by the end of the year. 

A spokesperson for the HSC said: “We await further information from the [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] regarding the detailed deployment of vaccines for the autumn booster programme."

Dr Nicola Brink, Director of Public Health, said in January that a fourth round of booster shots was likely to occur in the autumn, and the States later confirmed in July that a select group would be offered a dose before the end of 2022.

That includes people aged 50 and over, care home residents and workers, frontline health staff, the immunocompromised and their households, and unpaid carers.

But it remains unclear when the autumn booster will be available to eligible islanders. 

Pictured: The weekly trend of covid infections in the Bailiwick. 

The Bailiwick currently has 251 known active cases of covid-19. 237 of those are in Guernsey, whilst Alderney and Sark have nine and five cases respectively.

There are less than five patients in hospital with a recent covid-19 diagnosis.

In total, 23 people are confirmed to have died due to covid-19, whilst another 39 additional deaths are marked as involving covid-19. 

The States continue to recommend regular self-testing using lateral flow tests and remaining at home if positive or unwell.