AstraZeneca rollout paused amid efficacy blow for variant discovered in SA

South Africa received the first batch of a million doses from AstraZeneca earlier this month.

The Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize and the Health Committee addressed the media on the latest research on Covid-19 vaccines on Sunday evening.

Professor of Vaccinology at Wits University and the trial’s lead investigator Shabir Madhi says a 22% difference in efficacy is reason enough to be concerned.

“We have done some experiment in the laboratory against our original virus that was circulating and then they tested the potency of that antibody in neutralising the activity of the variant that is currently circulating and what they realised was that much of the antibody that was induced by the vaccine was not active against the variant 501Y.V2.

“We have seen a substantial drop in terms of the ability of the vaccine antibodies to neutralise the virus, that was a reason enough to be concerned.

It is largely disappointing news.”

Mkhize said a team of scientists will give guidance as to the way forward.

“We have to get our scientists together and figure out what approach are we going to use to effectively deploy the AstraZeneca vaccines, it must be clear on when that will be done. What conditions need to be fulfilled and what do we need to do, they will figure a way out and they will come back to us with a proposal."

The rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been scheduled to begin this week, has now been put on hold.

He said the vaccination will continue for healthcare workers with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which has shown 57% efficacy against the 501Y.V2 variant.

The vaccine is still awaiting approval from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.

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