Recommend existing COVID-19 vaccines to reduce serious illness but new vaccines are needed to prevent transmission

COVID-19 is no longer considered a global public health emergency, yet it persists in communities and continues to cause illness, particularly in the vulnerable. New variants of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) are highly transmissible but are generally associated with mild symptoms. People who are vulnerable and people who have not yet been vaccinated should still be encouraged to get vaccinated. The vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization include inactivated, mRNA-based, adenovirus vector-based and protein subunit-based vaccines. These vaccines still protect against severe illness but provide limited protection for symptomatic illness. To prevent transmission of COVID-19, new vaccines may be required.