Health Department will ‘soon’ roll out jabs to children
The Department of Health says government will soon expand its Covid-19 vaccination campaign to children under the age of 18.
The Pfizer vaccine has been approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) for use between the ages of 12 and 18.
This while the fourth wave of Covid-19 infections is set to hit the country in December.
The department’s acting director-general Nicholas Crisp told the SABC on Monday that they still need to reach the risk population before vaccinating teenagers.
“The question is about timing not about whether to do it, so what we need to do is that we need to have the regulator approve the vaccine that can be used in children and that has been done.
“So, the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use between the ages of 12 and under 18’s and it will be rolled out, and the question is when to do that.
“We have been attacking our challenge one age group at a time and there is every reason to expand it to children soon. When that soon might be we don’t know. Whether it is October or November we don’t know.
“There is an intention to expand our vaccination program. We have to get to the risk population first and that has been our strategy until now,” said Crisp.
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