The Washoe County Health District will administer additional (second) COVID-19 vaccine boosters for those 50 years and older or persons who are moderately or severely immunocompromised starting on Friday, April 1, 2022, at its clinic (indoor) location at 1001 E. 9th St., Building B.

Those eligible must have had their last booster at least four months prior. 

To schedule an appointment at the Health District, or with their homebound COVID-19 vaccine program, please call 775-328-2427. The vaccines are administered at the indoor Health District clinic, not at the drive through, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., every weekday, Monday-Friday. Walk-in appointments are available as space allows.

Health experts say although COVID-19 infections are way down, the medical community remains vigilant. In some countries, the BA.2 variant seems to be driving infections up, but in Nevada, only 4% of sequenced cases are from BA.2.

Local health experts say even if we see a surge of BA.2 cases, it shouldn't be as severe as what we have seen with BA.1 that is because the two strains share a lot of mutations, and we have built some immunity to BA.1.

"We are coming off a huge peak that just happened with BA.1, so there is remaining immunity with people in the population who did get BA.1 infected," says Nancy Diao, Washoe County Health District's Division Director of Epidemiology and Public Health Preparedness. Diao says vaccinations also help provide prolonged protection, but antibody levels do go down over time and that is why boosters are important.

Over 65 percent of Washoe County residents are fully vaccinated but less than half have the first booster. Before people start getting the second booster, they are asking those who haven't received the first one to think about it. They share there is a 50% lower risk in vaccinated people getting long COVID.

"Those who are confident they wont get hard hit by COVID, I would like to remind everyone that long COVID is still being studied," she says.