White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci stated Wednesday that the current available vaccines work against the Omicron version of Covid-19, and don’t need to be modified to combat the highly contagious new strain.

Fauci said that the booster vaccine regimens against omicron work during Wednesday’s White House Covid update. There is not need to use a variant-specific booster at this time.

Fauci claimed that two doses of the first primary vaccine series were available. Pfizer BioNTechAlthough it is greatly compromised by the omicron vaccine, it offers significant protection against serious disease. Two-dose vaccinations for infection have a 33% protection rate, as compared to the 80% that were available before the development of omicron. Fauci stated that two doses of the vaccine are 70% effective in keeping omicron-infected patients out of hospital in South Africa.

Fauci stated that although this number is significant, it is still high enough to protect against hospitalization.

Fauci stated that boosters increase the protection from symptomatic diseases to 75%. He cited data provided by the U.K. Health Security Agency.

The message is clear. Fauci advised that you get vaccines if your child is not currently vaccinated.

Jeff Zients from White House Covid response, citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, stated that people unvaccinated have eight times the risk of ending up in hospital than are those with full vaccinations.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, stated that 36 states had detected omicrons so far. This variant is responsible for approximately 3% in all Covid cases. She said that omicron cases are more common in New York City and New Jersey than elsewhere, accounting for about 13% of all cases.

Walensky explained that “early data suggest that omicron may be more transmissible then delta, with a time doubling of approximately two days.”

This is an ongoing story. Keep checking back for more updates.