JOHANNESBURG: South Africa has agreed to the use of the Pfizer Coronavirus Booster Vaccine for people over the age of 18, in the midst of increasing attention after a record of nearly 20,000 infections overnight, mostly comes from new omicron variants and very mutations.
South African Health Product Authority (Sahpra) on Wednesday approved the use of the Comiraty Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine after BionTech and Pfizer announced that the two doses of their vaccine might not be enough to protect from the Omicron variant.
It is said the third dose of the vaccine can be given to those more than 18 years at least six months after the second jab, or 28 days after the second jab for those more than 12 years are severely compromised.
The decision by Sahpra came after South Africa recorded a new high of 19,842 infections overnight.
The death toll now also exceeded the 90,000 limit with 36 new deaths.
More than 60 percent of these infections are in Gauteng Province, the country’s economic center, because speculation grows on more severe locking that will occur soon.
South Africa is currently at the lowest level of one of the five-level locking strategies.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to hold an urgent meeting with the Corona command board and his cabinet immediately after returning from a week to four West African countries on Thursday.
There was a fear that was increasingly afraid that infectious leaders would continue to increase exponentially in other provinces as well as holiday makers to coastal provinces and workers from Gauteng visited their traditional family homes to gather in the celebration season.
Although repeated calls by the government, trade unions and business leaders, vaccine doubts continue for the past week because infections reach a surprising amount.
On Monday, Health Minister Joe Phaahla expressed concern over the hospital began to fill with Covid-19 cases, although most cases were not severe.
PHAAHLA also shared concern over children and pregnant women when he spoke at the opening ceremony of the International Conference on AIDS and IMS in Africa in Durban.
“We see babies, toddlers and pregnant women in hospitals at oxygen.
The message is clear, we must be more vigilant than before,” the minister warned.
On Tuesday, Jacques van Zuydam, director director of the Head of Social Development for the population and development, revealed that the life expectancy of South Africa had dropped three and a half years due to a pandemic.
He spoke at the BRICS webinar on the impact of the demographic pandemic.
“There was a significant increase in death in 2021, around 34 percent from previous years,” he said, adding that what was not expected was the impact of pandemics in mental health.
“There has been an increase in mental illness reportedly related to the increase in social isolation, interference in the routine and pressure of everyday life associated with loss of livelihood,” he added.