ORLANDO, Fla. – Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to approve its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron strains after the Food and Drug Administration ordered the minds behind the vaccine to tweak their shots.
The tweaked vaccines aim to target BA.4 and BA.5 and bolster immunity better than earlier vaccinations and infection do.
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Pfizer and Moderna submitted their applications this week. Pfizer wants to offer the updated boosters to people ages 12 and older, while Moderna wants to offer them to adults. The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million of the Pfizer doses and 66 million Moderna doses, pending FDA approval.
This comes as Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech, accusing them of copying Moderna’s technology to make their own vaccines.
Prior to the battle between these companies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped quarantine and social distancing recommendations from its COVID-19 guidelines, as officials focus on the monkeypox outbreak.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the CDC and the state on Aug. 26:
Cases
There were 89,119 new coronavirus cases over the last two weeks.
Florida has seen 6,998,561 cases since the virus was first detected on March 1, 2020.
Deaths
The Florida Department of Health reported a cumulative death toll in Florida of 79,573. There were 1,014 fatalities recorded over the past two weeks, which we get by subtracting the number of deaths reported by DOH two weeks ago (78,559) from the current cumulative death toll.
The state stopped reporting the number of non-residents who died in Florida when the new weekly reporting method began.
Hospitalizations
The state Agency for Health Care Administration deleted its current COVID-19 hospitalization database and the state is no longer reporting how many patients have been hospitalized with the virus. However, Florida is still required to report that information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC continues to release that information online. The most recent hospital numbers show 3,122 adult and 89 pediatric patients in Florida.
Positivity rate
The Florida Department of Health reported the percent of positive results from coronavirus tests was 16.2% for the week of Aug. 19 but did not provide how many people were tested during the past two weeks. Health officials say the rate should remain between 5% and 10% to prove a community has a hold of the virus and is curbing infections.
Below is the Central Florida region breakdown of new cases and new vaccination numbers between Aug. 19 - Aug. 25.
| County | Total cases as of Aug. 25 | New cases since Aug. 19 | Total people vaccinated | Percent of 6 mo+ population vaccinated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 162,249 | 1,251 | 422,042 | 68% |
| Flagler | 26,669 | 169 | 80,307 | 67% |
| Lake | 100,904 | 670 | 256,999 | 67% |
| Marion | 97,544 | 871 | 231,615 | 61% |
| Orange | 446,289 | 2,490 | 1,107,985 | 75% |
| Osceola | 134,726 | 888 | 329,207 | 79% |
| Polk | 240,504 | 1,896 | 469,710 | 63% |
| Seminole | 123,392 | 791 | 333,450 | 69% |
| Sumter | 26,993 | 223 | 105,600 | 66% |
| Volusia | 139,598 | 959 | 358,981 | 63% |
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