PERSONS living in remote coastal areas and hard to reach in land areas will be the first to benefit from the 108,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines that arrived on Friday.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said on Saturday that mobile clinics will be used to carry the one shot vaccine dose to those areas.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference, the minister said, “Johnson & Johnson vaccine major benefit… one shot and you’re done.”
He added, “If you have a fear of needles, your fear is cut in half.”
Deyalsingh said the first tranche of the vaccines that arrived from the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) will be for those people especially who may lack suitable transport in many areas that he named.
The communities will be notified via their Members of Parliament, local government councilors and mobile loud speakers will give relevant information about the Covid-19 vaccine, the minister said.
When mobile units arrive in the area, people will also have a chance to ask relevant questions to medical personnel.
Deyalsingh said, “These communities deserve their chance at saving their lives. All of these communities, we want to touch you, inform you, give you the information and then give you access to another world class WHO (World Health Organization) approved vaccine.
“We are breaking down every single barrier to vaccination. It is accessible, it is free and now we are coming to you with this programme of mobile units.”
He said recipients of this vaccine would be 99% protected from any severe illness or death caused by the Covid- 19 vaccine.
An initial payment for the Johnson and Johnson vaccines has been already been made by the Government.
Efficacy of the vaccine
And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a very good vaccine for mass vaccination rollout says Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram.
He said, “It is a very good vaccine for mass vaccination programmes as the immunity builds from the shot two weeks later so it’s very good for rollout of mass vaccination plans.”
Similar to the AstraZeneca vaccine, Dr Parasram said it used adenovirus as the platform.
The CMO said that the J&J vaccine was 66.9% effective against developing asymptomatic disease such as vaccine symptoms, 76.7% effective against severe disease after 14 days, 85.4% effective after 28 days, and 93.1% effective against hospitalization of persons.
Dr Parasram also said that side effects from taking the vaccine included pain at the injection site, fatigue and headaches and in very rare cases thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and Guillian-Barre Syndrome with about nine cases per million.
The CMO stated that it was 64% effective against moderate to severe/critical disease and 81.7% effective against severe/critical disease caused by the Beta variant in South Africa.
He said it was 68.1% effective against moderate to severe/critical disease and 87.6% effective against severe/critical disease caused by the P.2 variant in Brazil.
