The government is planning to administer booster shots in January, health department acting director- general Nicholas Crisp said.
This comes as the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) approved the use of a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine for adults.
The Pfizer vaccine is administered in two parts and the third booster shot is given to people 18 and older at least six months after the second dose has been received.
Crisp said health minister Joe Phaahla would make an announcement after receiving advice from the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC).
“We’ve always known boosters were going to happen as all vaccines needed boosters. Immunity goes away over time, for many illnesses, apart from measles. We know boosters were always going to be an issue,” Crisp told Sowetan on Thursday.
“The question is when does it become viable and what’s the interval between the primary shot and the booster shot. For us it is six months, which is up at the end of December.”
Sahpra said it approved the Pfizer “optional third (booster) dose” of the Covid-19 vaccine after the company applied for approval.
Crisp confirmed that Johnson & Johnson had not yet applied for approval for booster vaccines with the regulatory body.
Asked what would happen to the 6.5m people who had received the J&J vaccine, Crisp said Sahpra had not yet taken a decision on mixing and matching vaccines.
“J&J still haven’t applied and we now have a problem. Currently SA has approval only for Pfizer,” he said.
Crisp said they met the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday and discussed the mixing of jabs. He said the government was still considering data on effectiveness of mixing vaccines and hoped that Sahpra would eventually approve this.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Sowetan in October, expert vaccinologist Prof Shabir Madhi recommended that those who were given the J&J vaccine also receive a Pfizer booster.
“This is because that combination seems to induce much stronger responses than if you boost with a J&J vaccine. The combination of vaccines seems to be giving better immune responses than when you have used two doses of the same vaccine,” Madhi said at the time.
Prof Mosa Moshabela, vice-chancellor of research and innovation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said after the second Pfizer dose antibodies start to decline after six months.
“But if you wait longer than this period you will then accept the risks that if it so happens you get Covid-19 during that time before you get a booster and you end up with some sort of complications, you would have accepted that risk. It is just like someone who delays taking their second dose,” he said.
However, Moshabela said if you have taken long to take the booster it does not mean you are totally exposed because “when your immunity wanes, it does not mean it disappears, it only goes to sleep”.
Dr Sangxa Rozani, an SA expat who works in Manchester, UK, said boosters were not unique, adding that if one took a closer look at their children's clinic cards, they would see this.
“The announcement by Sahpra is late. The vaccination programme in SA was slow and no-one is getting a booster today, from that announcement.
“Here in the UK, (Prime Minister) Boris Johnson made an announcement where he reduced the waiting period from six months to three months because they want as many people as possible to get the booster shot.
“The important thing here is let us stop pointing fingers at other nations who are acting. SA needs to act quick, act fast and not be afraid to be wrong because you would have acted,” he said.
