{"id":520538,"date":"2021-09-12T15:34:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T13:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=520538"},"modified":"2021-09-12T15:39:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T13:39:17","slug":"regulator-approves-pfizer-vaccine-for-children-over-12-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/520538\/regulator-approves-pfizer-vaccine-for-children-over-12-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulator approves Pfizer vaccine for children over 12 in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa approved Pfizer’s vaccine for use for children over the age of 12, a boost to the country\u2019s immunisation program.<\/p>\n

The move follows a review of updated safety and efficacy information and doesn\u2019t translate into a procurement decision, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority said Sunday (12 September).<\/p>\n

Regulators approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for local use in adults in March.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s most developed country has been the hardest hit by the pandemic, reporting the highest number of infections. Around 12% of the nation has been fully vaccinated, with the country of about 60 million people now bracing for a fourth wave of infections to hit in early December.<\/p>\n

The approval comes after Sinovac Biotech said a Covid-19 vaccine trial in infants, children and adolescents would take place in South Africa as part of a global study.<\/p>\n

Vaccine certificate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Government is now set to introduce a\u00a0digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate will confirm that a person has been vaccinated in South Africa, said health minister Dr Joe Phaahla.<\/p>\n

Addressing\u00a0media<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on Friday (10 September), Phaahla said that the certificate would be available through a person\u2019s smartphone, which can then also be printed out.<\/p>\n

Phaahla said that the certificate has been developed with fraud and other security protections and will align with international standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative is in line with the World Health Organisation initiated vaccination certificate. Through this, the WHO attempting to standardise vaccination proof all over the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The minister said this certificate should be available to the vaccinated in \u2018just over a week\u2019.<\/p>\n

Phaahla clarified that the documentation would be made available for those recently vaccinated and those vaccinated several months ago \u2013 as long as a person\u2019s personal information is reflected in the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) system.<\/p>\n

The health minister said that the certificate would likely be used for certain services in the future. but the government has no intention to make the certificate a requirement for accessing public services.<\/p>\n

Instead, Phaahla said that the document would be used to gain entry to entertainment and sporting events and possibly some businesses.<\/p>\n

With further reporting by Bloomberg.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Read: Ramaphosa to announce new restrictions as part of move to level 2 lockdown: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa approved Pfizer Inc.\u2019s vaccine for use for children over the age of 12, a boost to the country\u2019s immunisation program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":513484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-520538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520546,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520538\/revisions\/520546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}