Demand rises for updated COVID-19 vaccine heading into holidays

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Metro Atlanta pharmacists say demand for the newly updated COVID-19 booster vaccine is steadily rising going into the holiday season.

“We’re starting to see more coming in every week. So it’s an upward trend. And we do vaccine clinics in retirement homes, so we are booking those too,” Briarcliff Pharmacy’s Jay Jourdan said.

Jourdan says they’ve temporarily run out of the fall anti-virus booster, but people are calling in regularly to find out if the new shot is available.

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“They want to be safe over the holidays. They’re around families so it’s more of a precautionary thing that people are taking the vaccine. I don’t think anyone is scared of it. I think they would rather be safe than sorry,” Jourdan said.

Another pharmacist at Tuxedo Pharmacy in Buckhead says many of those coming in for the updated booster shot have trips planned.

“A lot of people have wanted to get it prior to travel. A lot of cases of COVID we see are related to travel so a lot of people are choosing to do it before their holiday travel,” pharmacist Dawn Lieber Sasin said.

The Georgia Department of Public Health says more than 260,000 people in the state have received the updated vaccine.

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Nationally the U.S. reports 36 million adults and 3.5 million have received the fall booster shot.

“I did. I have gotten every booster. My husband has a few health issues to I don’t want to be sick, so that he would get sick. So we both get them every time,” customer Penny Ratliff said.

Many health officials worry about a spike in coronavirus cases in the fall and winter months - although COVID hospitalizations in Georgia have been declining.

Pharmacists say more people are also receiving vaccines for RSV and the flu virus.

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