XBB 1.5 Shots Hit Pharmacy Shelves as Australia Prepares for Next Pandemic Wave

Pfizer and Moderna’s monovalent vaccines are now available in stores.

A man enters a pharmacy in Sydney on March 27, 2020. Australia is heavily dependent on China for the provision of pharmaceuticals and health-related products. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

New COVID-19 vaccines designed to target the “Kraken” subvariant of Omicron have reached pharmacy shelves in Australia, as the country deals with increasing case numbers and the prospect of another wave of the pandemic.

The XBB 1.5 shots, recently approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), can serve as both a primary immunisation dose and a booster.