On June 30, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States has recommended the inclusion of Omicron Covid-19 BA.4, BA.5 sub-variants as a part of Covid-19 booster doses starting in upcoming months.
Although, the FDA said it has not given any advice to the manufacturers to change the Covid-19 vaccine for the primary series of vaccination, and the agency said the coming year will be a transitional period when the modified Covid-19 booster vaccine might be introduced.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of FDA, said the agency hopes to introduce a Covid-19 booster campaign with a modified vaccine by October 2022. According to the data from CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub-variants are now dominating in the US. Previously, the CDC, said the rapid spreading sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 of Omicron Covid-19 are together estimated to make 50 percent of the Covid-19 cases in the US.
On June 29, 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Covid-19 cases are being driven almost 110 countries mainly be the two sub-variants of Omicron Covid-19. Till June 25, 2022, the BA.5 sub-variant has made up 36.6 percent of the total Covid-19 cases in the United States, and BA.4 has made up 15.7 percent.
