PACIFIC COUNTY — After months of anticipation, Omicron-targeted booster shots may be just days away.

Federal health regulators and advisers with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could recommend as soon as this week that the new booster shots from both Moderna and Pfizer be approved for use.

The expectation is that the bivalent boosters — meaning it targets both the ancestral strain of the vaccine and the Omicron variant — will be available sometime in September, perhaps as soon as just after Labor Day. Whenever they do end up getting the OK, local health officials will be ready.

County health director Katie Lindstrom said Pacific County is projected to receive an initial batch of about 300 doses of the booster once they get the final approval from federal agencies and the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup. The expectation, she said, is for those doses to be made available at the weekly vaccine clinic that the county health department hosts.

The boosters target the Omicron variant and its subvariants, including BA.5, the dominant subvariant in the U.S. at the moment, and represents a possibly substantial upgrade in terms of not just better protecting against serious illness that could require hospitalization, but preventing symptomatic infection outright.

Moderna’s bivalent booster is expected to be available for those 18-and-older, while Pfizer’s is authorized for those 12-and-older. Lindstrom clarified that only people who have completed their primary vaccine series are eligible to receive a booster dose. Those who have received a previous, original booster dose — or second booster dose, for those over 50 or with underlying health conditions — will also be eligible.

In Pacific County, 69.7% of the total population have received at least one vaccine dose, 62.7% have completed their primary vaccine series, and 34.1% have received at least one booster dose.

Once the boosters have been OK’d, Lindstrom said information about the vaccine clinics where they will be offered can be found at www.pacificcountycovid19.com/get-vaccinated.

Reported cases of covid-19 in Pacific County have receded in recent weeks, with the two-week case rate per 100,000 people going from 402 on Aug. 10 to 268 on Aug. 24. A total of 4,630 cases have been confirmed in the county since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations in the county are nearing 200, totaling 193 as of last week. Deaths caused by covid are at 62 in the county, with the most recent death being reported on Aug. 10.