Austin City Council directs staff to develop COVID-19 booster strategy

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin City Council has unanimously approved a resolution calling on city staff to develop a comprehensive, equitable and efficient COVID-19 vaccine booster shot strategy.

President Joe Biden’s booster shot rollout, which was announced on Aug. 18, is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 20.

FOX 7 Discussion: UT modeling consortium predicts ICU capacity

Dr. Kaitlyn Johnson joins Rebecca Thomas to talk about the UT modeling consortium.

The resolution calls for a booster shot strategy that:

Is equitable
Builds on lessons learned
Accounts for the need to address ongoing vaccine access issues affecting communities most impacted by COVID-19
Builds on the City’s recent commitment to increase its Community Health Worker staffing and improve health education
Calls for a robust community engagement and communication strategy

This resolution also tasks staff with reporting any outstanding needs of any City department taking a role in the implementation of the booster shot process. The city says the resolution also calls for a memorandum due back Sept. 21 and a work session presentation on Sept. 28.

Third doses are currently recommended eight months after the initial course of the two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. However, those with moderately to severely compromised immune systems are eligible now.

Booster shots for single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still pending.

For more information, click here

___
MORE HEADLINES:
Councilmember Fuentes addresses low vax rates in new resolution
Pfizer-BioNTech seeks FDA approval for third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine
Moderna requests FDA grant priority review to its COVID-19 vaccine
J&J COVID-19 booster shot generates 'robust' antibody response, company says
Unvaccinated individuals are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19, CDC says
___
DOWNLOAD: FOX 7 AUSTIN NEWS APP
SUBSCRIBE: Daily Newsletter | YouTube
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter.