"The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid. We're still doing a lot of work on it... but the pandemic is over," United States President Joe Biden said, according to AFP report.
Notably, the CDC said in a document released on Tuesday that it expects to make a recommendation in early-to mid-October on the use of the new bivalent vaccines in the group, if they are authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Reuters report.
It is worth noting that the vaccines, which target both the original version and the currently circulating variants of the virus, were rolled out for people 12 years or older earlier this month, the report said. The CDC said it expects Pfizer-BioNTech's bivalent vaccine to be available for children aged 5-11 years, and Moderna's vaccine for those aged 6-17 years, pending FDA authorization.
The Pfizer vaccine is already authorized as a booster dose for children over 12 years of age, while Moderna's bivalent vaccine is authorized for adults, the CDC stated that it expects pre-orders for the Pfizer shot to begin for the age group next week. The Moderna vaccine will have the same formulation for children and adults and will not require a separate pre-order period, the CDC said.
Meanwhile, in another development, Europe's medicines watchdog said Tuesday that Covid-19 cases and death rates were falling, but warned the pandemic "is still ongoing" as it urged countries to roll out booster programmes before the winter. Data collected over the last few weeks "showed that there has been a decrease in the overall number of cases and deaths caused by Covid-19 in Europe," the EU agency's head of vaccine strategy Marco Cavaleri said according to AFP report.
(With inputs from AFP, Reuters)
