SOUTH Africa has halted the rollout of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine following reports in the USA that some people developed blood clots after being vaccinated.
So far, almost 300 000 health workers in Mzansi have been vaccinated with the J&J vaccine since February this year.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Tuesday said though they have halted the rollout, there hasn’t been any case of blood clotting in South Africa.
The impact of this decision, we expect that it shouldn’t have any significant impact on the rollout seeing that at this point we have only done 300 000 people and in the next few days we are going to be doing another 200 000.
“We expect that this matter is going to be cleared in the next few days because we expect that next week the first batch of a million vaccines should be coming from J&J towards the end of the week.
Mkhize said they hope that next few days more information will come to the fore, such as clarity on whether the blood clotting issue is linked to the vaccine and what aspect of that vaccine.
“Secondly, is this something that is linked to other factors, environmental factors, underlying diseases, medication and so on,”
He said those are some of the things they will be looking at as they are looking for answers.
Though the fears of the third wave are mounting, Minister Mkhize said they have not received any information on the surge.
“At the moment we do not have any concrete information when the third wave might becoming.
We have to continue to encourage the public to use face masks, make sure that keep our distances and sanitise, they have helped us to stay on the plate for a while
The EFF joined the chorus of those calling for the halt of the J&J Vaccine rollout.
The call by the EFF is guided by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine be halted in the United States of America following severe adverse reaction in six cases of women aged between the ages 18 – 45 after having received the single-dose vaccine.
