Woman receives her second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site on March 29 2021 in San Antonio, Texas.Sergio Flores/Getty Images
Moderna soared as much as 10% on Monday, extending its two-day gain to more than 30% amid the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
Moderna said it is working to ready a vaccine specifically targeting the new variant by early 2022.
The company is also testing three existing COVID-19 booster candidates against the new variant.
The emergence of a new COVID-19 variant sparked a big rally in shares of
Moderna on Monday as the company announced plans to combat the virus with more vaccines.Moderna jumped as much as 10% on Monday, extending its two-day rally to more than 30% amid budding fears of the Omicron variant.The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus
was first identified in South Africa earlier this month and has since spread to more than a dozen countries. The highly mutated variant is thought to be more contagious than other COVID-19 variants including Delta, though
mild symptoms suggest it could be less deadly.While it's unclear how effective current vaccines are in preventing spread of the virus, tests are underway to determine the risk of infection among the already vaccinated.
