South Africa announced today the temporary suspension of its covid-19 vaccination programme after a study demonstrated a “limited” efficacy of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine against the new coronavirus variant detected in the country.
The vaccination programme is expected to begin in the next few days with one million vaccines developed by the AstraZeneca pharmacist in partnership with Oxford University.
The study, conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and not yet reviewed by peers, says that this vaccine offers “limited protection against moderate forms of the disease caused by the detected South African variant in young adults”.
“This is a temporary problem, we have to suspend AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines until we have solved these problems,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said at an ‘online’ press conference.
According to preliminary results, this vaccine is only 22% effective against moderate forms of the virus and results on its effectiveness against severe forms are not yet available.
South Africa, officially the most affected country on the continent, with over 1.5 million cases and over 46,000 deaths attributed to covid-19, received its first shipment of one million vaccines on Monday.
An additional 500,000 doses are expected to be delivered in February.
All these are AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India. These first doses were mainly intended for the 1.2 million health workers.
“In the next four weeks, we will have the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines,” said Mkhize.
Discussions are also underway with other laboratories, including Moderna and the Russian vaccine manufacturer Sputnik V, he added.
The South African minister recently announced that he had booked 20 million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.
The 1.5 million Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccines obtained by South Africa, which will expire in April, will be maintained until scientists give clear indications of their use, he explained.
“The second generation of vaccines to combat all variants will take longer to produce,” warned Salim Abdool Karim, epidemiologist and co-chair of the South African Department of Health’s scientific committee.
South Africa plans to vaccinate at least 67% of the population by the end of the year, or about 40 million people.
