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By Reuters 
7h ago
CAPE TOWN – South Africa’s lead investigator for the Johnson & Johnson trial, Professor Glenda Gray, said Thursday that the country’s regulator was processing a request for the vaccine to obtain an emergency clearance against Covid-19.
Addressing a vaccine webinar, Gray said they were in talks with regulatory authorities to roll out the single-dose vaccine to healthcare workers, after the government earlier this week temporarily halted the launch of the vaccine. AstraZeneca for efficacy concerns.
South Africa early Tuesday was looking for ways to implement AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine after temporarily suspending plans to implement it in healthcare workers, government advisers said Tuesday.
The government had planned to start rolling out one million doses of the AstraZeneca injection later this month, but test data released after its arrival showed that the vaccine offered minimal protection against mild to moderate disease caused by the variant of dominant coronavirus in the country.
South Africa now plans to start its vaccination program with injections from Johnson & Johnson in mid-February, after the American company promised to speed up deliveries.
Members of the government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee said the plan was not to rule out the AstraZeneca shots.
Rather, its use would be suspended until more evidence is available on whether the vaccine protects against severe Covid-19 of the 501Y.V2 variant, which is more contagious and currently accounts for more than 90% of cases in the country.
“AstraZeneca may well have a place, it may well have a significant place. This is just a suspension, not rule it out,” Professor Barry Schoub told Reuters.
“We have a problem with the variant in South Africa, it all depends on that.”
Schoub said various options for AstraZeneca injections were being explored, including whether they could be used in combination with another vaccine, to see if a dose “either the main or the booster dose with AstraZeneca can work well synergistically with another vaccine.” .
Another advisor, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, told Newzroom Afrika that a “two-step implementation” for the AstraZeneca vaccine was being considered.
After an initial round of vaccinations, hospitalization rates would be evaluated “and if we’re happy that it’s within the range that we want to see, then we continue with implementation,” he said.
South Africa aims to vaccinate 40 million people, or two-thirds of the population, to achieve some level of herd immunity.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive said Tuesday that his company believed its vaccine should still protect against severe Covid-19. The British-Swedish firm previously said it was adapting its vaccine to the 501Y.V2 variant.
Karim suggested on Monday that South Africa could start by giving 100,000 people the AstraZeneca jab to see how well it worked to prevent hospitalization and death.
But Schoub said it is still being discussed.
Separately, local pharmaceutical company Lamar International said it was looking to sell 15 million doses of the Russian Sputnik vaccine to the government.
He declined to name the price per dose, but said it could start supplying them if regulator SAHPRA grants approval for the vaccine to be used.
Reuters
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