On July 30, 2020, the company's headquarters in Saint-Herblain, near Nantes, western France, is pictured with the logo of Valneva SE Group. JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER PARIS MOSCOW - France's Haute Autorite de Sante public health body advised the government not to use Valneva's VLA 2001 COVID 19 vaccine as part of its wider vaccination strategy, although two rival products should be included as booster shots.
The HAS body recommended Sanofi, GSK's VidPrevtyn Beta and Novavaxovid shots to boost the vaccination of people who can not be given bivalent mRNA vaccines, which will remain the first choice, it said.
The use of Valneva's VLA 2001 vaccine in the current primary vaccine strategy is not included in the HAS.
Valneva, whose shares have been volatile in recent months, has been given regulatory approval in the European Union and some other countries for its first-generation COVID 19 vaccine, but was forced to cut financial guidance and slash jobs due to low order levels.
There is no clinical efficacy or immunological data about the current variants. Elisabeth Bouvet, the president of the HAS' vaccination department, said that it has not been retained for the time being.
Russia has registered 7,430 new COVID 19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total nationwide tally to 21,643, 194, the official monitoring and response center said Thursday.
The death toll increased by 54 to 392,454 in the United States, while the number of recoveries increased by 6,315 to 21,043, 426, it said.
Moscow reported 1,697 new cases, taking its total to 3,267, 061.
This photo, provided by the Office of the Governor of New York, shows Moderna COVID 19 vaccine at the Boriken Neighborhood Health Center in New York on Sept 7, 2022. DON POLLARD The US health regulators have authorized COVID 19 shots from Moderna and Pfizer and its partner BioNTech that target both the original coronaviruses and Omicron subvariants for use in children as young as 6 months of age.
The Food and Drug Administration approved an amendment on Thursday that allows use of Moderna's bivalent shot as a booster in children 6 months through 5 years of age, two months after their initial vaccination.
Pfizer BioNTech's updated shot can now be given as a third dose to those aged 6 months through 4 years, who have not completed their primary vaccination series or are yet to receive the third dose.
The agency said that children who have completed their initial three-dose vaccine with Pfizer's original shot are not yet eligible to receive the bivalent booster.
The data is expected to be released in January, supporting the use of Pfizer BioNTech's bivalent shot as a booster in this age group.
Shots for the youngest children in the United States were approved in June this year, making them the last group to be eligible for vaccination.
READ MORE: Biden appeals for COVID curbs for US-Mexico border migrants.
Government data shows that only 2.7 percent of children under the age of two and less than 5 percent of children aged two to four years who are eligible have completed their primary vaccine series as of Nov 30, a slow uptake of the initial vaccine doses in young children.
Moderna's vaccine for children under 6 is a two-dose, 25 microgram vaccine with the shots being given about four weeks apart. Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for the youngest children is a lower dose, 3 shot regimen given over at least 11 weeks.
As of Nov 30, 39.7 million people in the United States received a bivalent boost, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.