South Africa suspends vaccination with AstraZeneca due to low efficacy

The Financial Times reported that a vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford University may be ineffective against the South African strain of coronavirus.

South Africa is temporarily discontinuing the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after evidence emerged that it provides minimal protection against the South African variant of COVID-19, which currently dominates the country. This on Sunday, February 7, writes Reuters, referring to South African Health Minister Zveli Mkhize.

“This is a temporary problem, we must postpone vaccination with AstraZeneca until we solve this problem,” the agency quoted the minister as saying.

Earlier, the Financial Times, citing the preliminary results of a study that was preparing for publication, reported that a vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford may be ineffective against the South African strain of the coronavirus.

The head of the Ministry of Health stressed that while the committee of researchers is deciding whether to vaccinate with the drug AstraZeneca. Your vaccination plan will be temporarily frozen.

At the same time, AstraZeneca said Saturday that it believes its vaccine can protect against serious diseases and that it has already started tailoring it against the 501Y.V2 variant.

South Africa is known to receive 12 million doses of vaccine in March through the COVAX mechanism, and another 9 million doses from Johnson & Johnson in the second quarter. The country also has an agreement with the pharmaceutical group Pfizer to supply 20 million doses of the vaccine it produces to South Africa.

Previously at AstraZeneca they said their vaccine demonstrates 76% efficiency after the first injection and provides one hundred percent protection against severe course, hospitalization and death.

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