Summer beach days are out and fall vaccines are in.
Starting Tuesday, Lexington will be hosting free COVID-19 and flu vaccination clinics. The town is also providing each household with two boxes of COVID-19 at-home test kits, free of charge, to help keep the community healthy.
It is also recommended that older adults and babies receive a Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) shot in addition to getting updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines.
“We encourage everybody to get vaccinated,” Ramey Harris-Tatar, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Lexington Pediatrics, said. “Vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective…and can improve your health.”
Over the next few weeks, the town will put on several vaccine clinics for residents aged 4 years and older to receive the updated Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for everyone aged 6 months and older, as well as this season’s flu vaccine. Moderna’s new vaccine will target the KP.2 variant — an omicron subvariant that rose in prominence this summer — according to the Food and Drug Administration.
In addition to the below events, there will also be a clinic at the Lexington Police Station, which will be open to residents of all ages, at an undetermined date. Residents can register for all of the clinics on the town’s website.
| Demographic | Date | Time | Location |
| 60+ years | Tuesday, Sept. 24 | 9 am to 11:30 am | The Lexington Community Center |
| 60+ years | Tuesday, Oct. 1 | 10 am to 11:30 am | Scottish Rite Masonic Museum |
| 19+ years | Thursday, Oct. 10 | 1 pm to 3:30 pm | Lexington Community Center |
| 60+ years | Wednesday, Oct. 16 | 9 am to 12:30 pm | Lexington Community Center |
| All ages | Saturday, Oct. 26 | 9 am to 12 pm | Scottish Rite Masonic Museum |
The town’s Health Department is also offering residents free CareStart COVID-19 test kits from AccessBio through the US Health and Human Services’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. Each kit contains two tests and each household can receive two boxes. The kits are available now and will be while supplies last, Jonas Miller, director of communications for the town of Lexington, told LexObserver.
Residents can pick up their kits from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, at the town’s health department, fire department, and community center.
Which vaccines the CDC recommends for the general population
Everyone aged 6 months and older should get the flu and COVID-19 vaccines, including those who have received previous COVID-19 vaccines and those who had had COVID-19.
People who have recently had COVID-19 should wait three months to get the updated vaccine. And people who recently got the 2023 vaccine should wait at least two months before getting the 2024 vaccine.
In order to be considered up-to-date, people aged 12 years and older should receive one dose of either the updated Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Novavax vaccine. People who have never been vaccinated before and choose to get the Novavax vaccine should get two doses.
Which vaccines the CDC recommends for babies and young kids
On top of getting the flu vaccine, children aged 6 months to 4 years who have never been vaccinated should receive two doses of the updated Moderna vaccine or three doses of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Children in that age group who have received one or more doses of the Moderna vaccine should receive one updated Moderna vaccine this fall. But, the rules are different for children who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — children must receive a cumulative total of three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be considered up-to-date, so if a child has had two doses previously, they need one dose of the updated vaccine, but if they’ve only received one, they’ll need two.
Children aged 5 to 11 years should receive one dose of the updated Moderna vaccine or
one dose of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Harris-Tatar said babies aged 8 months and younger should also receive the RSV monoclonal antibody shot, Nirsevimab, which families can get at their pediatrician’s office.
Which vaccines the CDC recommends for older adults
As well as getting updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines, adults aged 75 years and older and adults aged 60 to 74 years who are immunocompromised should receive either the Arexvy, mResvia, or Abrysvo RSV vaccine if they have not previously received an RSV vaccine.
People in that age group should get that vaccine between August and October to stay protected during the fall in winter when RSV infections are most common.
While mask-wearing is less prominent than it was years ago and residents routinely attend school, work, and events in-person now, that does not mean that COVID-19 has gone away, Harris-Tatar said. She encourages everyone to get vaccinated to keep the community healthy.
“COVID is absolutely still a thing and we are hearing of an increased number of people having it again as kids go back to school,” Harris-Tatar told LexObserver.