Johannesburg /
South African authorities will suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in their immunization program against COVID-19 after a report found it provided limited protection against mild to moderate infections caused by the country’s most common variant of the coronavirus.
The Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, said the government would wait for the advice of scientists on how best to proceed, after the disappointing results of a lawsuit by the University of the Witwatersrand.
The government planned to distribute the vaccine AstraZeneca health workers, after receiving one million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India on Monday. The pharmacist himself has stated that he is reformulating his vaccine.
Instead, it will offer vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer in the coming weeks, as experts consider how the AstraZeneca vaccine might be distributed.
“What does that mean for our vaccination program that we said will start in February? The answer is that it will continue,” Mkhize said at an online press conference.
“Starting next week, for the next four weeks, we expect there will be Johnson & Johnson vaccines, there will be Pfizer vaccines. So what will be available to health professionals will be those vaccines. The AstraZeneca vaccine will stay with us… until scientists give us clear directions on what to do, ”he added.
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