JOHANNESBURG (SOUTH AFRICA) – South Africa’s health minister said on Wednesday the government might sell or swap AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, but it would seek advice from scientists as it gets ready to roll out an alternative US shot next week.
South Africa had stopped the rollout of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University after data from a small clinical trial showed that it did not guard against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronavirus.
One million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, reached the country last week, and another 500,000 are likely to arrive in the coming weeks. South Africa was also looking forward to receive AstraZeneca shots through the COVAX global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization and an African Union (AU) arrangement.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told a news conference the country would start inoculating health workers with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine through the means of an “implementation study” with researchers some time next week.
“Why not sell the AstraZeneca to other countries, well it’s an option, … we will consider it. First our scientists will tell us what we do with it, can we use it within the time that’s available … before it expires,” Mkhize said.
“If not, can we swap it with anyone else, because we’ve discussed it with COVAX and with AVATT (the AU’s vaccine task team), so we will see what we will do.”
Mkhize said the government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee should be able to present a considered view on how to go forward with the AstraZeneca vaccines in the next week or two. It was also added that the government had also got access to vaccine doses from Pfizer for health workers.
Negotiations with Moderna, China’s Sinopharm and over Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine are ongoing.
Mkhize said the first batch of J&J doses would not be a lot compared to the total the country was hoping to order.
“It’s possible that the first batch would actually be not paid for, because it would be covered more as the research stock. So if we are able to achieve that it’s fine, but if we have got to pay for it we have got no problem,” he said.
The J&J vaccine was 89% effective at evading severe disease and 57% against moderate-to-severe disease in the South African attempt a global trial.
The 501Y.V2 variant has left health experts anxious, who have raised concerns about its ability to likely not give attention to the immune response brought forth by prior exposure to the coronavirus or vaccines.
South Africa’s neighbour eSwatini said on Tuesday that it would not be making use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
