LISTEN | It's never too late to get another Covid-19 jab
NICD's Dr Melinda Suchard says there is no maximum time period to get another jab, but as time passes your antibody levels may decline
Image: Reuters/Carlos Jasso
It's never too late to get another Covid-19 jab.
“There is no maximum time — in fact, the longer the interval is, usually the better,” says Dr Melinda Suchard, head of the Centre for Vaccines & Immunology at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).
But, she said, there is a possibility that antibodies which aid your immunity to the virus may decline if you delay too long.
“With Pfizer, studies in adults show that a lot of the protection comes from the second shot; after one shot you are not fully protected. The level of antibodies produced by the vaccine is boosted much higher after the second dose.”
SA is vaccinating with the Johnson & Johnson jab, a one-doser, and the Pfizer two-dose vaccine.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has 91.3% vaccine efficacy after two doses. Suchard said delaying having the second Pfizer jab would affect your resistance to Covid-19. Having the second jab will significantly lower the risk of catching the virus.
Listen to Dr Suchard:
Just more than 300 new coronavirus cases were identified in SA on Wednesday evening. The health department reported 48 deaths in the past 24-hour period, bringing the total number to 89,435.
More than 23.5-million vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far.
The national department of health's Foster Mohale said: “Almost 16-million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose, including 218,000 children between 12 and 17 years old. Out of 16-million people, just more than 13-million are fully vaccinated. This means about 3-million are yet to receive their second jab.
“However, this number consists of those who are within their waiting period of 42 days/six weeks before they could receive the second jab and those who are due for the end jab but did not return to vaccination site.”
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