South Africa will resume its vaccination campaign on Wednesday, two weeks after its suspension from Johnson & Johnson due to fears about the risk of blood clots, its Minister of Health announced on Monday (April 26th).
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Vaccinations in the country have been very late: first the British vaccine AstraZeneca was ruled out in early February, following doubts about its effectiveness against the local variant of the coronavirus, and the doses purchased by Pretoria resold to other countries Africans.
Then, this suspension of the American Johnson & Johnson in mid-April, following cases of blood clots observed in the United States.
Now, in the wake of the favorable opinion last week from the South African Medicines Agency (Sahpra), the South African government will resume the first phase of its vaccinations, which aims to protect the 1.2 million caregivers from the country. “
It has since been established that there is a chance in a million of developing blood clots after being vaccinated,
” said Zweli Mkhize in his press release. “
Due to the very low probability, regulators around the world have recommended the continued use of this vaccine,
” he adds.
The government has obtained enough doses, from the Americans Johnson & Johnson but also Pfizer, to inoculate "
at least 45 million people residing in South Africa
", reaffirms the minister in his press release, without specifying a deadline. Until now, the government evoked March 2022. “
The beginnings were difficult for our country concerning the deployment of the vaccination, he admits, but despite all the challenges which we have been confronted, we keep positive prospects, both for the recovery of public health than for the economy in general
”.
To date, South Africa has officially recorded more than 1.5 million cases and more than 54,000 deaths. The total number of vaccinated, which appeared on the daily Covid report published by the minister, has not been included for a few days.
