Minister of Health Joe Phaahla Says Stricter Lockdown Measures Will Be Discussed, NCCC Meeting Scheduled

• A large number of the people that have died because of Covid19 related complications were found to have not been vaccinated or partially jabbed
• The Department of Health says it is expecting Johnson&Johnson booster shot to be given approval soon
• The Minister of Health Joe Phaahla says the National Coronavirus Command Council will host a meeting next week

At the weekly media briefing held by the Department of Health, it was revealed that the majority of the people that have died as a result of Covid19 were found to have either not been vaccinated or received one jab of the Pfizer vaccine.

Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says the data collected on the 400 patients that died as a result of Covid19 is still incompletely, however, preliminary findings show that 93% of those who have died were not fully immunised.

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Approval for Johnson&Johnson booster shots to be granted

The South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) is expected to give the go-ahead for the J&J booster shot to be administered in South Africa, according to TimesLIVE.

The Health Department Director-General Dr Nicholas Crisp stated that the announcement will most likely be made sometime next week.

Crisp also stated that Pfizer booster shot will also be made available in South Africa before the end of the year, however, the general public will have access to the jab in March, according to BusinessInsider.

NCCC expected to meet next week

The Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla stated during the briefing that the National Coronavirus Command Councill will have a meeting sometime next week.

They will be looking into whether or not stricter lockdown regulations will be necessary before Christmas by taking the increasing Covid19 infection cases into consideration.

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Some South Africans are still against getting the jab

Social media users who don't believe in getting the vaccine, believe that the department of health is not being truthful about the stats around the deaths of the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Some have stated that more unvaccinated are dying because they make a large number of the population.

Here are some of their comments:

@Muedinc said:

"If they were fully vaccinated you were going to say they died of other underlying courses anyways"

@LibraYono said:

"There’s no way a person can be fully vaxxed within the window period of the first jab… stop this thing of misleading the ppl…"

@Skeem_SaJohnnie said:

"There is a less number of vaccinated people, we should also expect less death of unvaccinated. You don't need to understand descriptive statistics to understand that."

@IAm_Gunnz said:

"That's the narrative they are pushing. We know the truth."

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South Africans are happy the country will remain on Alert Level 1

Briefly News previously reported that South Africans can enjoy their festive season following the National Coronavirus Command Council has made the decision to keep the country in Adjusted Alert Level 1 despite the ongoing fourth wave.

The Minister of Health Joe Phaahla says although the Omicron variant is highly infectious, the number of people being hospitalised because of severe disease is relatively low.

Phaahla says the department has been tasked by the NCCC to continue monitoring the numbers of people getting hospitalised as well as the infection and mortality rates, reports News24.

Source: Briefly News