PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The city of Philadelphia has officially rolled out its vaccination recommendations for this year for COVID-19, flu and RSV.
Philadelphia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole says the city has noticed a slight uptick of the coronavirus in the wastewater. That seems to be reflected, she says, in the city’s COVID hospitalizations.
“Where we were staying well below 50 hospitalizations pretty much in the last six months, we’re now up to 85,” she explained.
Now, Bettigole says, the latest COVID vaccines are starting to arrive in Philadelphia.
“It was developed for the XBB strain, which is one of the omicron strains,” she said, “and it has been tested against the various strains that are in circulation now and seems to be quite effective.”
She says the vaccine is recommended for anyone over 6 months of age, especially those who are high risk, such as people over 65 or anyone with underlying risk factors.
“That could be asthma or high blood pressure or diabetes or [being] overweight, a body mass index of 25 or over,” she listed, “and between all of those things I just listed, that’s about 70% of our city.”
People can get their COVID vaccine together with the flu shot, which is recommended before flu season starts in November. Dr. Julia DeJoseph, with Delaware Valley Community Health, says this year, COVID shots could cost more than $100. However, they are covered with insurance and under the Bridge program for people without insurance.
“You could be charged but you just shouldn't. Our job as public health experts in the city is to make that not happen. The concept of the Bridge program is to make it not happen,” DeJoseph said.
Also available now is the RSV vaccine, recommended for people over 65, those who are pregnant, and infants whose parents did not get the RSV vaccine.
“Infants whose parents didn't get the vaccine during pregnancy would get the new monoclonal antibody product before the age of eight months,” Bettigole added. “If they're high-risk, they would get it up to 19 months of age.”
The monoclonal antibody shots for RSV cases are a new product available, according to Bettigole. “It prevents 80% of hospitalizations for RSV in infants,” she said, “and that's a game changer.”