GENEVA (Reuters) – South Africa will roll out the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in a “phased way” to assess its ability to prevent serious illness, said Salim Abdool Karim, co. -chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Monday.
South Africa on Sunday said it would stop using the AstraZeneca pill after research showed it was only marginally effective in preventing moderate to severe disease against a variant of the coronavirus that is now under the control of the country.
Speaking to a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing, Abdool Karim said it was too early to say whether the AstraZeneca vaccine would still be effective in preventing serious disease, as there were insufficient data. still its effectiveness in the elderly against the variable.
South Africa would stop the release of the AstraZeneca vaccine for now while they test the next steps, and could vaccinate 100,000 people with the picture to see how good it is. he was working to prevent hospitalization and death.
“We don’t want to vaccinate people with a product that may not prevent hospitalization or reduce disease,” Abdool Karim said.
He said South Africa would implement the Johnson & Johnson vaccine first, so the change in plans would not have a major impact on the pace of the South African vaccine program.
The AstraZeneca vaccine makes up almost every dose – more than 330 million – that the WHO COVAX program plans to roll out to poor countries in the first phase, starting as early as this month .
Seth Berkeley, GAVI ‘s federation chief executive who co – directs the COVAX program, said the case was still being investigated, but suggested there were no plans to reject the vaccine at this time.
He noted that the South African study used a dosing schedule of four weeks between the first and second dose, and that evidence had since suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine would become more effective with a longer interval between dose.
Kate O’Brien, head of vaccination at the WHO, said information would continue to come in to update plans to use vaccines, and it was “important to manage a sustainable vessel. “
Reporting by John Revill, Stephanie Nebehay, Emma Farge and Peter Graff; Edited by Mark Heinrich and Bill Berkrot