Juta MedicalBrief
With a third of South Africa’s vaccination doses expiring midyear and less than half of adults vaccinated, the national Department of Health is trying to boost uptake by allowing mix-and-match shots and reducing the period between vaccination and booster, writes MedicalBrief.
The country has 21m vaccine doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shots and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines on hand, with 7m Pfizer jabs expiring by midyear, said Health Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp. Less than half (42.3%) were fully vaccinated, government statistics show, and the seven-day moving average of daily vaccinations stands at 64,200, down from the August peak of over 241,000.
The decrease in uptake could lead to some of the country’s Covid vaccine doses expiring before they’re used, Crisp says. “The challenge [with doses expiring] starts at the end of March but June and July are the biggest challenge. So we have time to pick up pace and, if we don’t use our doses fast enough, to see if our neighbouring countries can use any of that stock.”
