Please take note that the Covid-19 vaccination for health care workers in both the public and private sector that would have been done from 13-15 April at Parys District Hospital, has been suspented until further notice.
This follows after an announcement made by the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize. Dr Mkhize in his statement tonight said that the department of health has noted the decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA0 in the United State of America, to advise the tempory suspension of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine rollout in the US due to 6 reports of unusual blood clots. Over 6,6 million citizens have already been inoculated with Johnson and Johnson vaccine in the U.S. Dr Mkhize confirmed that SA has not had any reports of clots that have formed after vaccination, and that this is after having inoculated 289 787 health care workers under the Sisonke Protocol. Based on the advise of the FDA, the minister said that it was decided to voluntarily suspend their rollout until the casual relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated. “We wish to ensure citizens that these kinds of reports are expected to emerge as part of a robust post market surveillance system – this should provide comfort that medical authorities keep a vigilant watch on new products that are deployed into the market to ensure they remain safe and effective for human consumpton. It is for this reason that we implemented the Sisonke Protocol and will implement a similar post market surveillance study for Pfizer when we roll out the first batch of doses to health care workers,” the minister said. The minister also confirmed that SA has successfully negotiated for another 10 million doses of Pfizer, and of these, they expect just under 2 million to be delivered in May. This means 30 million doses of Pfizer vaccine has been secured for this financial year. The Minister said that they are confident that the rollout of Johnson and Johnson will resume and so, with 30 million doses of Johnson and Johnson and 30 million doses of Pfizer secured, they will have enough doses to exceed the 40 million they were targetting this year.
In view of the above – please take note that the Covid-19 vaccination for health care workers in both the public and private sector that would have been done from 13-15 April at Parys District Hospital, has been suspented until further notice.
