SAMRC: J&J vaccine protects against death by up to 96%

This is according to the SA Medical Research Council’s Professor Glenda Gray, who presented findings of the Sisonke study on Friday morning. 

“A single jab of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine protected between 91 and 96.2% of health workers against death,” says Gray. 

“You can see that consistently after receiving the vaccine there are very little deaths that are occurring in the vaccinated group as compared to the controlled group and showing a remarkable up to 96.2% protection against death. We are able to say that this vaccine protected healthcare workers against death.” 

Although the country’s vaccine rollout began at a snail’s pace, over 8 million people have now been vaccinated. 

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More people are expected to get inoculated within the next coming months with the government aiming to jab 23 million by the end of the year. 

New Health Minister Joe Phaahla says the country’s vaccine supply has stabilised. 

“Our vaccine supplies have now stabilised as we speak to you this morning. We have over 10 million vaccines in our storage.

“In August alone we will have received over 20 million doses of vaccines, The supply of vaccines has stabilised and for the remainder of the year we expect to deliver another 21 million doses of vaccines. This means that the vaccination programme can be expanded to reach more people and be accelerated to cover more and more of the population.”