Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said South Africa will launch a vaccination campaign with injections from Johnson & Johnson.
South Africa is considering changing its doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and starting its Johnson & Johnson inoculation campaign, said the health minister.
The country, hardest hit by the pandemic in Africa, halted the launch of the vaccine that was supposed to start with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week after a study found that the vaccine failed to prevent mild and moderate illnesses caused by a variant discovered in South Africa. South nicknamed 501Y.V2.
The vaccination delay delayed an ambitious plan to inoculate about 40 million people – 67% of the population – by the end of 2021.
“Given the results of the effectiveness studies [the government] will continue with the planned phase one vaccination using the Johnson & Johnson vaccines instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine, ”Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine proved to be effective against the 501Y.V2 variant.”
He did not say when the immunization would begin.
Authorities are also deciding on the fate of more than a million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines already obtained from the Serum Institute of India (SII) and due in late April, although that date could potentially be adjusted.
Mkhize pointed out several options, including selling or exchanging doses with countries that deal with the original coronavirus strain.
“Depending on their advice, the vaccine will be exchanged before the expiration date,” he said, adding that “there are already countries that are asking to sell it to them.”
“Our scientists will continue with other deliberations on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa,” explained Mkhize.
Local vaccine production
South Africa was slow to catch the global vaccine race and received its first applications, one million injections of AstraZeneca, just on February 1st.
Another 500,000 doses were purchased from the SII and are due to be delivered this month.
Mkhize said the government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee should be able to give a thoughtful view on how to deal with AstraZeneca vaccines in the coming weeks, adding that the government has also guaranteed doses of Pfizer vaccine to healthcare professionals.
Negotiations with Moderna, China’s Sinopharm and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine continue.
Officials said earlier that the country had secured nine million single doses of J&J, and Mkhize said a deal could be finalized soon.
The J&J vaccine was 89 percent effective in preventing serious illness and 57 percent effective against moderate to severe illness in the South African leg of a global trial.
Ninety-five percent of infections observed in the local study were due to the 501Y.V2 variant first identified last year.
The 501Y.V2 variant alarmed health experts who raised concerns about its ability to prevent the immune response generated by previous exposure to coronavirus or vaccines.
South African neighbor eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, also said on Tuesday that it would not use the AstraZeneca vaccine.