The South African government has stopped administering doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine following a recent study that showed it had reduced protection against the new strain of emerging disease in the country.
This was announced on Sunday by the Minister of Health of South Africa, Zweli Mkhize, who specified that it is a temporary suspension until a committee of scientists decides the strategy to be followed regarding this immunizer, according to Independent Online.
The South African government had expected the arrival of one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, on Monday, after which it planned to start vaccinating health workers.
A study to be published on Monday and accessed exclusively by the “Financial Times” ensures that the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is less effective against the South African variant of the virus and does not protect against mild to moderate symptoms.
However, the head of Health stressed that the immunization program will continue “from next week, for the next four weeks, we hope that there will be Johnson & Johnson vaccines, there will also be Pfizer vaccines”, which will be the vaccines that will be either administer to medical staff.
In this regard, the authorities intend to speed up the deployment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as it has shown effectiveness against the new variant that prevails in over 90% of new infections in the country, said the Council President. South African medical researcher Glenda Gray, as reported by Bloomberg.
To date, South Africa has recorded 1,476,135 coronavirus infections, as well as 46,290 deaths since the pandemic broke out, according to Johns Hopkins University.