The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it has asked vaccine makers to update their COVID-19 booster shots to target the Omicron subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5.
The two highly contagious subvariants now account for more than half of all new COVID cases in the United States.
“As we move into the fall and winter, it is critical that we have safe and effective vaccine boosters that can provide protection against circulating and emerging variants to prevent the most severe consequences of COVID-19,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release.
