DURBAN - DISCOVERY says it has seen from its members’ hospital admissions that the Covid-19 vaccine works and reduces mortality rates.
Discovery said its data showed that mainly women supported getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ryan Noach, chief executive of Discovery Health, said he was concerned that coastal provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, which is a popular destination during the festive season, may lead to a spike of new infections and the anticipated fourth wave.
Noach said the medical aid scheme predicted that South Africa would only have 52% of the required 70% of the population vaccinated.
“We are very concerned. The reality is people need socialisation; it cannot be avoided, but we highly recommend that people choose to hang around people who’ve been vaccinated.
“As much as possible we encourage people to use the outdoors for socialising and to continue non-pharmaceutical measures to avoid infection, or re-infection,” said Noach.
To date the medical aid scheme had tested 2.4 million of its members for Covid-19, but only over 437 000 members had tested positive.
“At this point vaccine supply is not the issue but we are seeing a very worrying trend of demand having tapered off. There were encouraging signs of a spike when the vaccine rollout opened for younger people but now it’s gone back to a lull.
“We are particularly worried about people aged 60 and above – they remain the most vulnerable to the pandemic. Our data still shows a strong relationship between vaccinated people and their recovery rates, and also avoiding hospitalisation or death,” said Noach.
Discovery was one of the companies supporting the government’s Sisonke second dose programme J&J vaccine programme for frontline workers and and high risk groups, he said.
The Health Department confirmed last week that frontline health-care workers who were among the first to be vaccinated against Covid were to receive booster shots for the J&J vaccine.
Foster Mohale, national Health Department spokesperson, said the department and international studies had confirmed that the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine started waning after eight months, and that priority workers needed to be given a booster shot.
“We are taking a first-in-line approach with the roll-out of the vaccine programme for almost 500 000 workers who had received the initial one-dose vaccine from J&J,” Mohale added.
“We do anticipate resistance to come back which is why we are on an aggressive campaign with priority groups to engage and explain the need for a booster Covid-19 vaccine and the benefit of the booster shot.
The Health Department last week partnered with the Shoprite group offering a R100 grocery voucher incentive for people aged 60 and above to receive their first vaccine.
It said almost 2 million elderly people in South Africa had not been vaccinated and that it had been struggling against fake news and that vaccines were not a priority for many people.
Dr Ronald Whelan, chief commercial officer for Discovery Health, said the scheme was closely monitoring physical long-term complications caused by Covid-19 such as long-term kidney complications, blood disorders and other diseases.
“We will be tracking data closely over the next 3-4 months. From that evidence we would decide if there is a need for a booster vaccine.”
THE MERCURY