Grant County Health District says COVID has been ticking up for weeks, and annual immunizations will likely be necessary, just like the flu.

Luckily, new vaccines are available, GCHD pointed out, and they’re aimed at newer strains of variants.

The public health agency said Tuesday that the county is seeing a rise cases and hospitalizations.

Coulee Medical Center officials confirmed that facility is seeing more cases too, and local schools report multiple cases have occurred predictably, causing scheduling problems for teachers and sports teams.

“Vaccination remains one of the best protections against COVID-19-related hospitalization and death,” GCHD said in a press release.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized an updated COVID-19 vaccine for the 2023-2024 respiratory season. The vaccine was updated to better protect against the COVID variants expected this fall and winter.

The bivalent COVID booster used previously offered protection against COVID-19 variants seen in 2022, but is no longer authorized for use. It would be less effective against the Omicron variants experienced this season, GCHD said.

The new shots are expected to be available in Washington within days.

The new COVID-19 vaccine recommendations are as follows:

• Everyone 5 years and older should get one dose of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to protect against serious illness, the health district said.

• People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may get additional doses of updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Children aged 6 months–4 years may need multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines to be up to date if not previously vaccinated, including at least 1 dose of updated COVID-19 vaccine if vaccinated.

GCHD recommends regular monitoring of CDC and Washington State Department of Health’s (DOH) website as they continue to finalize recommendations and updates.

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html

DOH: https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/vaccine-information