South Africa to offer additional coronavirus booster shots to most vulnerable
South Africa plans to offer additional Covid-19 booster vaccines to people at highest risk of complications associated with the disease.
The government intends making top-up inoculations available to qualifying adults a minimum of 180 days after they had their last shot, Foster Mohale, a spokesperson for the health department, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Those aged 18 to 49 are currently eligible to get three vaccines and those 50 and older four shots.
“This next booster will be a voluntary dose and not part of a wide community campaign,” Mohale said.
South Africa suffered severe coronavirus waves over the past two years, but the number new cases have slowed as increasing numbers of people gained a degree of immunity after contracting the disease or getting vaccinated. More than four-million infections have been recorded so far and excess death data, which measures fatalities against an historical average, show that one in 500 citizens died from the disease.
Children aged between five and 11 who have specified chronic medical conditions and who are referred by a clinician will also be offered two doses of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine early next year, with an interval of 21 days between them, Mohale said.
“Despite the current low hospitalization and mortality rates, the pandemic continues threaten the lives of vulnerable people,” he said. “Vaccination still provide the best protection against severe disease as well as long Covid.”
Long Covid is a term used to describe complications ranging from lethargy to an increased risk of heart disease experienced by some people after an initial Covid-19 infection.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers
VISIT SHOWROOM
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa is sole distributors for Goodwin electrically driven, submersible, abrasion resistance slurry pumps.
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
