The national department of health has said that there is no Johnson & Johnson (J&J) booster vaccination rollout under way.
Spokesperson Foster Mohale was responding to the question of why President Cyril Ramaphosa was scheduled to receive the J&J booster vaccine. J&J had only applied to the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) on Thursday for the registration of a booster jab. Currently, Pfizer's is the only booster shot permitted for Covid-19 in SA.
Mohale said Ramaphosa was part of the first cohort in the country to receive the J&J vaccine as part of the Sisonke trial, which made him eligible to receive the J&J booster through the Sisonke trial.
“When we started with the Sisonke trial, it targeted health workers including a few political principals such as the president, the deputy president, the health minister and health MECs.
“Sisonke two comes to an end this Friday and all those who had been on the trial between February and May were eligible.
“There is no J&J booster rollout as Sahpra is still processing such an application,” he said.
Health minister Joe Phaahla received his J&J booster shot on Tuesday as part of the trial.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Discovery Health announced that a double dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine has 70% effectiveness against the Omicron variant of the virus.
Discovery Health CEO Ryan Noach made the announcement during a media briefing where the company released its first at-scale analysis of real-world experience of the Omicron outbreak from SA.
Noach was joined by SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) president and CEO professor Glenda Gray on Tuesday during the webinar.
“What's been reported regarding Omicron is that it's a lot milder than the previous variants we've seen and hospital admissions are people who are mostly unvaccinated.
“Omicron has materially reduced vaccine effectiveness against new infections. Effectiveness has dropped from 80% pre-Omicron, which is potentially compounded by the waning durability,” he said.
Noach said that Omicron accounts for 90% of Covid-19 infections in the country.
He also said there was a higher number of children being infected with Covid-19 than in previous waves.
“There is a higher number of paediatric cases than prior waves and children experience similar symptoms to adults but these only last for a period of three days,” he said.
He said he was concerned to see the rise in cases of children between the ages of 0-4.
Noach said children have a higher risk of admissions during Omicron than adults.
“This number might seem high but the increase is only by percentage points considering there is a lower number of hospital admissions than with previous variants...
“Hospitals conduct routine checks when admitting patients for other illnesses and the positive cases are then discovered. Both private and public hospitals are finding a high prevalence of Covid-19 in routine screening of patients admitted,” Noach said.
Speaking on the booster vaccines, Gray said getting vaccinated was the only means of protection against Covid-19.
Addressing the J&J booster shot, she said no-one had died from Omicron so far when looking at the Sisonke two trials.
“We are busy looking at that right now. For Sisonke, although we have had lots of breakthrough infections, there have been minimal admissions and as of now no deaths This demonstrates that the vaccine is working against severe disease,” she said.
Health minister Phaahla announced the regulator had received the data package relating to booster doses from J&J.
Gray said: “We hope they will make the announcement this week. Sahpra received the dossier on Thursday night.”
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