Over 15 million Americans got updated COVID vaccines so far – Reuters

An exterior view of the United States Health and Human Services Building on C Street Soutwest in Washington, U.S., July 29, 2019. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Over 15 million people in the United States, around 4.5% of the population, had received the updated COVID-19 shots by Oct. 27, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson said on Wednesday, lagging behind last year's vaccinations.

Close to 23 million people had received updated boosters as of Oct. 26 last year, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows. The 2022 fall vaccination campaign started around 10 days earlier than this year's.

"As of Oct. 27, more than 15 million Americans have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine and over 19 million vaccines have shipped to pharmacies and other locations, with 91% of Americans 12 years and older living within 5-miles of a vaccination site," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The updated shots from Pfizer (PFE.N) and BioNTech (22UAy.DE), Moderna (MRNA.O) or Novavax (NVAX.O) are single-target vaccines aimed at the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus, which was dominant in the U.S. for much of this year but has since been overtaken by other variants as the virus evolves.

Rollout of the Pfizer and Moderna shots began in earnest after the CDC recommended them on Sept. 12. The rollout of last year's updated shots targeting two virus variants started about 10 days earlier, and by Oct. 26, around 23 million Americans had rolled up their sleeves for one of them.

U.S. public health officials have expressed hope that Americans will welcome the new vaccines as they would an annual flu shot. But demand for COVID vaccines has dropped sharply since 2021, when they first became available.

Around 56.5 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, received last year's version of the vaccines.

Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Washington-based correspondent covering U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical policy with a focus on the Department of Health and Human Services and the agencies it oversees such as the Food and Drug Administration, previously based in Iraq and Egypt.

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Over 15 million Americans got updated COVID vaccines so far - Reuters