South Africa to Offer Covid-19 Boosters as Omicron Sets In

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa will offer Covid-19 booster shots as it races to control a surge in infections caused by the omicron variant.

A third dose of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s vaccine will be offered to adults from early January, Nicholas Crisp, who oversees South Africa’s inoculation program, said in an online presentation on Friday. Johnson & Johnson boosters will be offered “soon,” he said.

“Boosters will start off with people over the age of 60 and as peoples’ six months rolls up, they will be eligible for booster,” Crisp said.

Daily infections in South Africa are nearing a record, after scientists in the country announced on Nov. 25 that, together with an institute in Botswana, they had discovered the new variant. So far, about 43% of South African adults are fully vaccinated. Still, initial evidence from studies and hospitalization data shows that omicron is better at evading vaccines than earlier strains and can reinfect those who previously contracted the disease. 

Fewer people are being hospitalized than in earlier waves and there is a “disconnect” between the surging number of infections and much slower rates of increase in hospitalization and death, Michelle Groome, head of surveillance for the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said at the briefing. That, she said, differs from the first three waves of infection.

Initial data from a trial of a Johnson & Johnson booster shot among South African health workers will be available next week, Glenda Gray, the co-leader of the study known as Sisonke, said at the briefing.

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