Mkhize: SA could sell or swop AstraZeneca vaccine

South Africa is scrambling to find a new strategy to fight Covid-19 after suspending vaccinations using the AstraZeneca jab due to its low efficacy in preventing mild or moderate infections by the new variant now dominant in the country.

A new study on the efficacy of the vaccine was released less than a week after the country received a shipment of 1 million doses from India.

Briefing the media on Wednesday morning, Mkhize said one of the options could be selling or swopping the vaccine with another country.  

“On the one hand our scientists will continue with further deliberations of the AstraZeneca vaccine use in South Africa and depending on the advice the vaccine will be swapped before the expiry date.

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“By exchanging the unused vaccines before the expiry date the Department of Health will make sure that the vaccines will not become fruitful and wasteful expenditure. 

“There are other countries who have asked us to sell it to them. All we can do is to the public we will not waste the money, we will either swap the vaccine and get a different vaccine and get a fresh batch if we will be using it. At the moment we will wait for the experts to give us some advice.” 

The million doses of the vaccine received earlier this month will expire in April.

Mkhize said the expiry date was discovered through the department’s quality protocols and not “by accident”, as claimed by some.  

“Sometimes when the matter is being raised in the media and it comes out as a leak people don’t say that it is our information that has been used.”