By Reuters
South Africa will start its immunization campaign with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine after data showed AstraZeneca’s shot offered minimal protection against mild-to-moderate illness from the dominant local virus variant.
The country, which has recorded the most coronavirus infections in Africa and more than 46,000 deaths, had planned to start offering healthcare workers the AstraZeneca jabs soon but put that plan on hold on Sunday.
A government factsheet published on Monday said the J&J vaccine would be offered from mid-February. A senior health official said J&J had agreed to speed up deliveries so the first doses would become available around the end of the week.
“Our vaccine rollout plan has not changed, except that we will begin with the Johnson & Johnson instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the factsheet said.
J&J said it was in advanced discussions with South Africa about “potential additional collaborations” to combat COVID-19. “We hope to be able to share more details in the coming days,” it said.
Preliminary trial data showing the AstraZeneca shot does not significantly reduce the risk of mild-to-moderate illness caused by the more contagious 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year was a disappointment not just to South Africa, but to the continent as a whole.
The 501Y.V2 variant is believed to have spread to nine other African countries, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiological report last week.
