South Africa scraps AstraZeneca COVID vaccine
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says South Africa will launch inoculation campaign with Johnson & Johnson shots instead.
South Africa is considering trading its doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and beginning its inoculation campaign with Johnson & Johnson shots instead, the health minister said.
The country, worst-hit by the pandemic in Africa, has suspended its vaccine roll-out that was due to begin with Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week after a study found the jab failed to prevent mild and moderate illness caused by a variant discovered in South Africa dubbed 501Y.V2.
The vaccination delay has set back an ambitious plan to inoculate about 40 million people – 67 percent of the population – by the end of 2021.
“Given the outcomes of the efficacy studies [the government] will continue with the planned phase one vaccination using the Johnson & Johnson vaccines instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a press briefing on Wednesday.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been proven effective against the 501Y.V2 variant.”
He did not say when immunisation would begin.
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