SA’s Johnson & Johnson rollout to recommence on Wednesday

The Health Department has announced that the country’s rollout of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will resume on Wednesday, 28 April 2021 – after it was temporarily placed on hold for two weeks.

The move came after it was reported in the United States (US) that patients who had been administered the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, developed blood clots.

According to Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, it had been established that there’s a one in a million chance of getting blood clots after being jabbed.

“…and that it appears that women between the ages of 18 and 48 years old are particularly at risk. With such a low probability of developing a clot, all the regulators across the world have recommended the continued use of Johnson and Johnson,” the minister said in a statement.

To date over 290 000 out of the 1.2 million health care workers in the country have been vaccinated–with Phase One expected to end on the 16th of May. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has recommended that pregnant women be excluded from getting the shot.

“Today we are pleased to announce that, following SAHPRA’s recommendation on 17 April 2021 and Cabinet’s concurrence on 21 April 2021, the vaccine rollout will resume through the Sisonke Programme on Wednesday, 28 April 2021,” Mkhize said.

Mkhize: SA to add 95 vaccination sites

Dr Zweli Mkhize further said vaccination sites will be expanded to 95 sites across the country and these sites will continue to vaccinate health care workers during the first phase of the rollout.

“The programme has, on hand, all the doses it needs to complete vaccinating 500 000 health care workers through the early access protocol and the teams have been eagerly standing by, looking forward to making up for the lost time by completing this programme in the shortest possible time”

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize

The minister has said they have managed to secure enough doses to vaccinate at least 45 million people residing in the country.

“Let us remember that Johnson & Johnson is currently the best vaccine against the 501Y.V2 variant, which is dominant in this country. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is effective, easy to use and it is still considered safer to get vaccinated with it than not to,” Mkhize added.