Japan to offer omicron COVID shots to people vaccinated at least twice

New COVID-19 vaccines considered effective against the omicron variant will be available to all people who have completed at least two inoculations from as early as mid-October, the government said Monday.

The bivalent vaccines, so named for their combination of ingredients deriving from existing COVID-19 shots and from omicron’s BA.1 subvariant, have been reported to provide some increase in neutralizing antibodies against the BA.5 subtype currently prevalent across the country.