U.S. health regulators on Friday approved booster Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech and from Moderna Inc. for all U.S. adults, a move that comes just as a recent increase in cases was beginning to concern health authorities.
The Food and Drug Administration today gave approval for the booster shots to be made available to all American adults 18 and older. The shots are expected to become available within days following Centers and Disease Control and Prevention approval, which came hours after the FDA's.
The shots are widely available in the U.S. and its territories, as the U.S. government has purchased 500 million Moderna booster shots and 600 million from Pfizer.
The FDA said the boosters will be available to all adults who were fully vaccinated at least six months earlier.
Booster shots for the immunocompromised and high-risk adults have been available for some time.
The U.S. Virgin Islands, which in recent times had been experiencing a decrease in Covid-19 infections, saw cases climb in the past few days, with total active infections rising to 98 as of Thursday, up from 56 on Monday, or an increase of 48.
Governor Albert Bryan told the Consortium earlier this week that he would ease Covid restrictions further on the Monday following Thanksgiving.
"We're going to ease down on the restrictions again because it's been three weeks now and so far so good, knock on wood," the governor said. "So the restaurants, the ferries, the maximum people in any place at one time — all of those are going to change."
One change the governor provided more details on is allowing facilities hosting events to have a maximum capacity of 150 with both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The current limit is 100, which Mr. Bryan announced on Oct. 26 and again confirmed to the Consortium Wednesday. The administration's Covid-19 Task Force routinely disregards Mr. Bryan's directives on the matter, as they continue to advise owners of entertainment facilities that the limit for events allowing a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals is 50. The governor will have to make clear on Nov. 29 his latest directives, and see to it that they are not flouted by the task force.
For vaccinated events, the capacity is expected to remain at 250 and those events must seek permission from the territory's Health commissioner. The Health commissioner may also allow events with more than 250 vaccinated individuals at her discretion.
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