Health minister says ‘less effective’ vaccine won’t go to waste
Mkhize said his department received requests from other countries that want to buy the stock and the department was also considering those bids.
The 1.5-million doses of “less effective” AstraZeneca vaccine acquired by the government would not go to waste, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has promised.
This as recent research showed that the vaccine’s efficacy drastically dropped to 22% against mild to moderate sickness caused by the Covid-19 second variant.
Mkhize said the ministerial committee and researchers were still mulling over on ways to use the vaccine, which expires in April, effectively.
“Depending on their advice, the vaccine will be swapped before the expiry date,” he said.
“By exchanging unused vaccines before the expiry date, the Department of Health will ensure that the acquired AstraZeneca vaccines do not become a wasteful and fruitless expenditure.”
Mkhize said the department received requests from other countries that want to buy the stock and the department was also considering those bids.
“I want to assure people that there will be no wasteful expenditure on AstraZeneca. A decision would be taken before the expiry date either to swap the stock or exchange for fresher (AstraZeneca) stock.”
Mkhize said the country would not be requesting the money from the Serum Institute of India spent to procure the vaccine.
Despite this setback, the health department will continue with the planned phase 1 vaccination using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“South Africa has also secured doses from Pfizer for phase 1 roll-out. Our scientists are continuing to evaluate other candidates and we are simultaneously engaging manufacturers.”
Mkhize said the department was fast-tracking procurement with Johnson & Johnson and other vaccine companies to acquire enough vaccines needed.
Responding to the expiry date of the AstraZeneca, Mkhize said if it were not for the efficacy drop of the vaccine the department would have gone through with the vaccination and the vaccine administration would have been done prior to the expiry date.
“The April expiry date was not discovered by accident but through the implementation of our quality assurance and control protocols.”
New projections of achieving herd immunity, Mkhize said, would be revised as an impact of the temporary halt of AstraZeneca.
On the provinces’ Covid-19 plan, Mkhize hinted that the department expected teething problems when the vaccination process started, but he said the national government was ready to support the provinces in the roll-out.
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