JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa suspends use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot in its vaccination program after data shows it provided minimal protection against mild to moderate infection caused by the country’s dominant coronavirus variant .
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday that the government would wait for the advice of scientists on the best way to proceed, after disappointing results in a trial conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand.
The government intended to launch the AstraZeneca shot at health workers soon, after receiving a million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India on Monday.
Instead, it will offer vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer in the coming weeks, while experts consider how the AstraZeneca feature can be deployed.
“What does this mean for our vaccination program, which we said will begin in February? The answer is that it will continue,” Mkhize told an online briefing.
“Starting next week for the next four weeks we hope that there will be J&J vaccines, there will be Pfizer vaccines. So what will be available to health workers will be these vaccines. “
“The AstraZeneca vaccine will stay with us … until scientists give us clear directions on what we need to do,” he added.
Reports by Alexander Winning and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Edited by Alexander Smith