South Africa’s decision to stop a mass rollout of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after a study showed that it offered reduced protection against the South African variant is “just a temporary delay” and includes a new implementation strategy , the head of South Africa’s Covid 19 advisory committee said Monday.
“This is just a temporary delay, but the way we are going to implement it will be different, as we are taking a two-step approach,” epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim told Times Radio.
During a briefing on Sunday, Karim said that “if the vaccine does not prove to be effective in reducing hospitalizations, we would have to offer these individuals another effective vaccine – a booster of that vaccine … or give them another vaccine. So we can still proceed with our launch, but we need to do it … wisely, taking a gradual approach. “
He emphasized that the reason for this approach is because “we don’t really know the answer to serious illnesses”.
Early data released on Sunday suggest that two doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine provided only “minimal protection” against mild and moderate Covid-19 from the variant first identified in South Africa.
Viral neutralization against the variant, called B.1.351, was “substantially reduced” when compared to the previous coronavirus strain, the University of Oxford said in a press release. The effectiveness of the vaccine against severe Covid-19, hospitalization and death has not been evaluated.
Karim also explained on Monday that South Africa will only launch a mass vaccine when they are “confident” that it will reduce hospitalization in 100,000 individuals infected with the variant initially identified in the country.
The first step is to probably vaccinate about 100,000 individuals, and then assess what the hospitalization rates are. And since we are confident that hospitalization rates are low with the AstraZeneca vaccine, then we started to launch the million doses we have left, ”said Karim.
“If we find that hospitalization rates are not as low as we would like, it is clear that we would stop and not launch AstraZeneca any more – so that’s the plan.”
South Africa’s vaccination program has been delayed by about two to three weeks, added Karim, saying it is how long they expect the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to arrive in the country.
“With each vaccine that we are going to launch, we can think of it as a two-step process – it is a gradual introduction of each vaccine,” explained Karim.
However, the country also faces the expiration of its current million doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine in April.
The vaccine should have a six-month shelf life, a Health Department official said at a briefing on Sunday – when the break was announced – but the Oxford / AstraZeneca doses that South Africa received earlier this month from the Serum Institute of India “came with an April expiration date, which we only identified on arrival.
Dr. Anban Pillay, from the Department of Health, said the department is awaiting a response after asking the Serum Institute “for an extension of the date, if possible, or for an exchange of shares.”
During Sunday’s briefing, South African Minister of Health, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, said that for the next four weeks, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines will be available to healthcare professionals and that they would examine the Oxford / AstraZeneca expiration date issuing the date, saying there should be no “waste”