Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says South Africa will launch an inoculation campaign with Johnson & Johnson photos in its place.
South Africa is considering trading the doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and starting their inoculation campaign with Johnson & Johnson photos in its place, the health minister said.
The country, which has hit the worst pandemic in Africa, has suspended its planned vaccination with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week after a study found that the injection prevented mild and moderate illness caused by a variant found in South Africa called 501Y.V2.
Vaccination delays have pushed back an ambitious plan to evacuate about 40 million people – 67 percent of the population – by the end of 2021.
“With the results of the effectiveness studies [the government] they will continue with the proposed phase one vaccine using Johnson & Johnson vaccines instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine, ”Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a news release on Wednesday.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been proven effective against the 501Y.V2 version.”
He did not say when the vaccination would begin.
Officials are also deciding on the fate of more than a million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines already received from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and which are due to expire at the end of April. , although that date may change.
Mkhize identified several options, including selling or changing the doses with countries that were dealing with the original coronavirus strain.
“As for their advice, the vaccine will be changed before the expiry date,” he said, adding that “there are already countries that want to sell it to them.”
“Our scientists will continue with further discussions on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa,” Mkhize explained.
Local vaccine product
South Africa were slow to catch the global vaccine scramble and got their first job, a million AstraZeneca shots, just on February 1st.
An additional 500,000 doses have been purchased from the SII and are expected to be delivered this month
Mkhize said the government’s ministerial advisory committee should be able to provide a considered view on how they will deal with AstraZeneca vaccines in the next week or two, adding that the government had also received vaccine doses from Pfizer for health workers.
Negotiations with Moderna, Sinopharm China and over Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine are ongoing.
Officials previously said the country received nine million one-dose J&J sightings, and Mkhize said a deal could expire soon.
The J&J vaccine was 89 percent effective in preventing serious disease and 57 percent effective against moderate to severe disease in the South African leg of a global trial.
Ninety-five percent of diseases studied in the local study were due to the 501Y.V2 variant that was first identified at the end of last year.
The 501Y.V2 variant has intimidated health experts who have raised concerns about its ability to block the immune response that comes from prior exposure to the coronavirus or vaccines.
South African neighbor eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, said on Tuesday he would not use the AstraZeneca vaccine.