The South African Health Products Authority (SAHPRA) says recipients of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be informed of the possibility of extremely rare blood clots developing, once the injection is administered.
The rollout of the J&J vaccine is set to resume on Wednesday through the Sisonke programme.
The rollout was halted after six patients developed a blood clot after being vaccinated in the United States. It has, however, been proven that there’s a one in a million chance of developing a clot after taking the vaccine.
SAHPRA Chairperson Professor Helen Rees says, “What is going to be different is that, in the informed consent, people are going to be told that there is a very rare condition that has occurred with possible linkage to the vaccine. This is not common and it is extremely rare. Nonetheless, people need to be informed of it. Everyone who gets the vaccine will be told that if you get any of these symptoms you must report immediately to your healthcare provider because there might be nothing at all but there might be a signal of this very rare condition.”
COVID-19 vaccine rollout set to resume on Wednesday through the Sisonke Programme:
The Health Department says the resumption follows the recommendations from the SAHPRA as well as Cabinet’s approval last week.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says there is also a general agreement among countries that the use of the vaccine should resume.
“What has now come out from our review of reports and documentation on what is happening all over the world has made us to therefore come to an agreement that we should actually reopen the vaccination. Yes, there is an association that has been established between the problem of clots and the vaccine but there is a feeling that the incident is very, very low. So we will be resuming the whole programme.”
Two weeks ago, Mkhize briefed South Africans on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine:
