Staff Reporter
South Africa’s plans to roll out the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine this week have been put on hold after it emerged that the much-touted drug is not strong enough to subdue the local variant of the coronavirus.
And as if not enough, the vaccine, which arrived in the country on Monday last week, expires in April — about three months earlier than expected.
The vaccine has a shelf life of about six months.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a televised media briefing on Sunday night that the government is now working on getting the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate health workers.
“When new information is brought to light and viruses change and mutate, decisions need to be made,” said Mkhize.
“This is possibly why the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout is on hold for now. In the next few weeks, South Africa will have the J&J and Pfizer vaccine,” he added.
The minister said the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccination programme has been suspended until a committee of scientists advises on the best way forward.
South Africa received one million doses of the vaccine developed by drugmaker AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
The Serum Institute of India has been licensed to produce the drug for the market.
Another batch of 500 000 doses was set to be delivered before the end of this month.
The government had earmarked health workers for the initial vaccination exercise.
Trial data that has been put together from October last year shows the AstraZeneca vaccine gives limited protection against mild and moderate disease caused by the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.
The two-dose vaccine gave an efficacy of 63-90 percent during trials, but scientists were not certain on its strength against the new COVID-19 variants.
Wits University vaccinology specialist Professor Shabir Madhi told the media briefing that a trial he did with his team could not ascertain the vaccine’s full efficacy against the local variant of COVID-19.
He said until the end of October 2020, the vaccine showed ‘potential’ and individuals who took a single dose were 75 percent less likely to be infected.
According to Madhi, the emergence of the 501.V2 variant in the country, possibly rendered the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine ineffective.
“When we analysed individuals in terms of how well the vaccine worked against the variant, there was very little difference between the vaccine group and placebo group,” said Madhi.
“However COVID-19 vaccines really remain the only sustainable option of reducing risk of severe disease and death.”
Leading COVID-19 expert in South Africa Professor Salim Abdool Karim allayed fears that the situation could get out of hand.
He said vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna were doing reasonably well against the South Africa strain.