Vaccines: Don’t be concerned about gap between shots, says KZN health dept

The KZN health department has advised that the public should not be concerned about a long gap between receiving the first and second shots of the Pfizer vaccine.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires 2 doses to be effective against Covid-19, which the department said it will administer 42 days (6 weeks) apart.

Phase 2 of the vaccination programme was launched on May 17 and is open to South Africans aged 60 and older.

KZN health minister Nomagugu Simelane said: “Although it was initially said that the interval between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine should be 21 days, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Department of Health have said this can be extended to 42 days – especially if there are challenges with the supply of the vaccine doses.”

Simelane said the recommendation of 42 days between shots may change if further data become available.

The scheduling on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) will be programmed accordingly.

“We are explaining this so as to eliminate confusion among elderly people, especially when they arrive at our sites and get given a date that appears to be distant. We are also appealing to younger people who are techno-savvy to help the elderly with registration and to staff at our health facilities to assist the elderly with registration when they get there,” she said.

Pfizer’s clinical trials did not compare different dose spacings or compare one with two doses, but a new study by the University of Birmingham in the UK recently found that delaying the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to 12 weeks significantly increased the antibody responses in older people.

According to the findings, the antibody response in people aged over 80 was three-and-a-half times greater in those who received the second dose after 12 weeks compared to those who got it at the recommended three-week interval.