New coronavirus vaccines will likely hit pharmacies in the U.S. next month as the nation – and New York – see an increase in cases.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the updated vaccines in a few weeks. A Center for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee will then submit recommendations. If the CDC director signs off on the new shot, vaccines will be shipped out.

According to President Joe Biden's administration, the updated vaccine has been tweaked to fight the spread of more recent variants.

“So this variant is an Omicron subvariant, so it's really like what we’ve been dealing with for the last year or so," said New York State Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald.

As the EG.5 variant causes a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations, McDonald is not concerned. Based on what he’s found, the severity of it is similar to other variants, and the upcoming vaccine will be effective against it.

“What we look at with every particular variant is, how is it different?" he said. "All of the Omicron variants are pretty similar to each other, and the question is, does the difference matter?”

The state Department of Health has a detailed process to figure that out.

“So we actually get samples from people who have COVID, from their new COVID test, and then we look at the whole genetic structure of the virus," McDonald said.

It’s another variant that McDonald has his eye on.

“BA.2.86 is capturing my attention because it's very different genetically from the EG, the one we just talked about," said McDonald. "And part of why we want to know if that’s going to be a problem is, what is it going to do with the vaccine?”

McDonald said he doesn’t know how severe or transmissible the variant is. According to the CDC, nine cases have been found throughout the world, with two in the United States.

“We’ve been looking for it in New York state and we haven’t found it yet," he said. "We’ve checked the wastewater. It’s not here yet, but I fully expect it’ll be here in the coming weeks.”

The two cases were found in Michigan and Virginia.