The area's two big hospital networks have begun a study of booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID vaccine.
University of Rochester Medical Center and Rochester Regional Health will participate in the clinical trial which will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a third dose of the vaccine. The trial could help develop long-term vaccination strategies to protect against new variants of the virus.
Rochester is only one of four sites in the U.S. conducting the trial.
144 people nationwide who were fully vaccinated during the phase 1 trials last year will get the third shot. That number includes 35 people locally.