Arkansas sees low turnout for latest COVID boosters

About 4% of fully vaccinated people — those with the first two shots of Pfizer, Moderna or Novavax or a single shot of Johnson & Johnson — in Arkansas have received the new bivalent booster shot.

Why it matters: The latest COVID booster is intended to be more effective at targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant, which makes up most cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.

• Cases, hospitalizations and deaths tend to rise in the winter, and health officials recommend getting boosted to ward off the worst outcomes associated with COVID-19.

By the numbers: Nearly 1.68 million Arkansans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the state Department of Health. That's about 59% of the population ages 5 and older.

• Department spokesperson Danyelle McNeill told Axios on Tuesday that 68,553 Arkansans had received the bivalent booster.