While the world may be opening up because of the increase in COVID-19 vaccinations, top medical experts say there may be another round of shots needed within about a year, writes CNN.

A booster COVID-19 vaccine for people who have already been vaccinated may be needed as soon as eight to 12 months after their second shot, according to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“We know that the vaccine durability of the efficacy lasts at least six months, and likely considerably more, but I think we will almost certainly require a booster sometime within a year or so after getting the primary”, - Fauci said.

Roughly 47.9% of the US population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data as of early Wednesday. About 37.8% of the population is fully vaccinated.

As of Wednesday, there were more than 33 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States and more than 587,000 deaths.

Fauci also said Wednesday that variant-specific boosters may not be needed.

“Instead of having to play whack-a-mole with each individual variant and develop a booster that’s variant-specific, it is likely that you could just keep boosting against the wild type, and wind up getting a good enough response that you wouldn’t have to worry about the variants”, - he said.