“The AU will spread to those countries that have already shown interest in acquiring the share,” South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told lawmakers in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Mkhize said the rumors that the shots, which were bought from the Serum Institute of India (SII), have expired and that they are being returned to India, are simply not true, and that no money is wasted.
“The recent announcement about the limited efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which we have already purchased, was certainly disappointing. But we were determined not to get rid of our commitment to vaccinations in February,” Mkhize said.
The health minister announced that the country had instead insured 9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We have actually received enough doses to vaccinate all the people who need to be vaccinated in South Africa,” Mkhize said.
South Africa is expected to give the Johnson & Johnson vaccine the green light and start administering doses this week.
The deployment is a 180-degree turning point by South Africa, which received 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and plans to administer doses to health workers in February. Another 500,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca would be delivered by the end of the month.
Instead, South Africa switched to a new plan. In a research study, health workers will start vaccinating with Johnson & Johnson shots. Officials will deliver shots to health workers at 20 vaccination centers in each of the country’s nine provinces. More than 380,000 health workers have registered so far.
The first batch of 80,000 Johnson & Johnson shots is expected this week, with the delivery of 500,000 doses in the next four weeks, Mkhize said. It will be supplemented with another 20 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, expected by the end of March.
South Africa is consulting with scientists on what to do with the AstraZeneca vaccine following the news that two doses of ‘significantly reduced’ protection against mild to moderate Covid-19 disease against the B.1.351 variant.
Seven other countries now report the B.1351 variant in Africa – including Ghana, Kenya, Comoros, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia.
From the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, it was not clear whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was protected against the serious B.1.351 variant against serious diseases. The 2,000 participants in clinical trials were mostly young healthy adults and therefore probably not seriously ill. But based on immune responses detected in their blood samples, the researchers said there was “some hope” that the vaccine could protect against serious cases.
AstraZeneca recently stated that it is working with the University of Oxford to adapt the vaccine against the B.1.351 variant and that it will promote it through clinical development to “prepare it for autumn delivery if needed”. . “
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who is co-chair of the advisory committee of Covid-19 in South Africa, initially told CNN that the country is likely to take an “adapted approach” in which they will impact the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine judge. has been rolled out. But it seems the country has now completely scrapped the strategy.
Regarding the future role of Oxford-AstraZeneca in South Africa, Mkhize only said that health officials will continue to be led by experts and by science.
This is a major blow to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is praised for its low cost and easy storage as one of the best hopes in the world to defeat the virus.
The COVAX program – a coalition that includes Gavi and the World Health Organization with the aim of distributing Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries – is dependent on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Earlier this month, COVAX announced a plan to distribute more than 337 million Covid-19 vaccine doses worldwide – of which 336 million doses are the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and only 1.2 million doses are the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“While a vaccine that protects against all forms of Covid-19 disease is our greatest hope, it is essential to prevent serious cases and hospitalizations that overwhelm hospitals and healthcare systems,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a news release. briefing Thursday.
The second wave of Covid-19 in Africa, which peaked in January, was according to Dr. Must be more lethal than the first wave.
With the deployment of vaccines, “if cases mostly remain soft and moderate and do not require critical care, we could save many lives,” she added.
CNN’s David McKenzie contributed to this report.