Gov. Ned Lamont and the state Department of Public Health are now encouraging all Connecticut residents over 18 to get their COVID-19 booster shots if they've been fully vaccinated for at least six months.

State officials hope to help fight a winter surge as immunity levels fall from those initial doses.

Doctors with Yale Medicine and local health officials echoed the governor's call for anyone who was vaccinated more than six months ago to go and get a booster.

"We have an opportunity to get people boosted here in Connecticut, to fight this next wave that is coming in terms of COVID-19," said neuroimmunologist at Yale Medicine Dr. Sharon Stoll.

Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani joined Lamont in Vernon Thursday to extend that opportunity to all Connecticut adults who have been vaccinated for at least six months.

Previous guidance called for those who got Pfizer or Moderna shots to get the booster only if they were over 65 or had additional risk factors.

The expansion comes as case numbers rise abroad and in Connecticut.

Local infectious disease doctors say it's important to top off your waning immunity before we gather indoors for the holidays.

"Even if you're young and healthy, and don't have any comorbidities like diabetes, high blood pressure, things that we know put people at increased risk for hospitalization with this pandemic, we're going to be gathering with the elderly, and children, and immunocompromised. So if not to protect you, protect them," said Stoll.

Lamont says there is no plan for a mandate yet.

Officials encourage all adults who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to get their boosters two months after vaccination.

The FDA signaled that in the next few days it may approve COVID-19 boosters for all adults 18 and older who received Moderna and Pfizer shots.