COVID-19 vaccine booster shots offered in Houston – KHOU.com

CVS and Walgreen's are accepting appointments and Methodist Hospital has the vaccine for people who are qualified.

HOUSTON Houston Methodist has started giving COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to those who qualify. Anyone who does qualify can make an appointment and no prescription is needed.

CVS and Walgreens also said they're accepting appointments for the booster shot.

Federal health officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots for the vaccinated may be needed. They've been reviewing case numbers in the U.S. almost daily as well as the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccines protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.

Israel has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago.

Moderna President Stephen Hoge said seeing some breakthrough infections emerge among the vaccinated within six months has been surprising, even if most symptoms so far have not been life-threatening. I think that suggests we are going to need booster vaccines to get through the winter, he said.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration said people with weakened immune systemscan get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to better protect them as the delta variant continues to surge.

Currently, about 60% of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose and nearly 51% are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventio. Areas with low vaccination rates have been particularly hit hard with infections, such as Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Mississippi.

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COVID-19 vaccine booster shots offered in Houston - KHOU.com