Britain’s health chief hints that millions of its citizens in 'relevant groups' may need boosters twice-a-year for the foreseeable future.
Dr. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency has suggested to the Daily Mail that the most vulnerable in society will still need regular top-up inoculations.
This comes as uncertainty persists worldwide as to the long-term efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and begs the question – will another jab be necessary following the so-called 'booster jab'?
According to Harries experts are unable to predict when a new variant may occur and how it could affect immunity from vaccines.
Back home, according to the Department of Health, many people are expressing exhaustion around Covid, with the belief persisting that the virus is now very weak and Covid is over.
The department says this sentiment is fuelling vaccine hesitancy and reports of many saying that if they survived two years of the pandemic why do they need to get vaccinated now.
In the interest of encouraging vaccine uptake, South Africa has since changed its COVID-19 vaccination rules by shortening the interval between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine from 42 to 21 days and allowing people who have received two doses of Pfizer to get a booster dose three months after their second shot as opposed to six months previously. One can also now mix and match booster jabs.
According to Reuters South Africa has so far fully vaccinated 28% of its roughly 60 million population, or 42% of its 40 million adults.
Below are the latest statistics as posted by the Department of Health on their Twitter feed.
As of today the cumulative number of #COVID19 cases identified in SA is 3 715 390 with 1 557 new cases reported. Today 06 deaths have been reported bringing the total to 99 976 deaths. The cumulative number of recoveries now stand at 3 602 251 with a recovery rate of 97,0% pic.twitter.com/DrFGotxgLB
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) March 29, 2022
