The Department of Health announced on Monday that the interval between vaccines as well as booster shots has been reduced.

The department said the changes to its vaccination programme are guided by scientific evidence to increase the uptake to Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa.

“Some of these changes include reduction of time interval between first and second doses of Pfizer from 42 days to 21 days with effect from Wednesday, February 23.”

People who are fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, meaning they have had both doses, can now receive a booster shot 90 days after the second dose, instead of the current six month waiting period.

Those who are older than 18, and have received one dose of the J&J vaccine, can receive a booster shot of either the same vaccine or Pfizer after a waiting period of two months, starting on Monday, February 21.

People over the age of 18, who have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, can from Wednesday receive a booster shot of either Pfizer or J&J at least three months after the second dose.

The department has explained that this is called heterologous booster doses, meaning booster doses are of a different vaccine to which was administered as the primary dose.

“If both vaccines are available at vaccination site, homologous boosting should be preferred, unless the vaccinee requests to receive a heterologous or different booster dose, or has a history of experiencing an adverse event following immunisation.”