South Africa freezes vaccination with the “AstraZeneca” Corona vaccine

The South African government announced, on Sunday, the suspension of the vaccination campaign against the Corona virus with the vaccine, “AstraZeneca”, due to its low effectiveness in combating the new strain discovered in the country.

The South African Minister of Health, Zwaili Mkhize, indicated that the results of the tests conducted by the local University of Vetthattersrand and the British University of Oxford confirmed that the vaccine provides only limited protection from this strain.

Mkhize explained that the authorities decided to freeze the use of the “AstraZeneca” vaccine, but would implement the vaccination program by adopting the “Johnson & Johnson” vaccine and the “Pfizer” and “Biontech” vaccine.

The Minister of Health indicated that a committee of experts will continue to study the “AstraZeneca” vaccine to determine its future in the national vaccination program.

And South Africa, which is facing an outbreak of a new strain of Corona virus that was discovered in December 2020 and is considered the most contagious and resistant against antibodies, had previously sold one million doses of the “AstraZeneca” vaccine produced by the Indian Serum Institute.

Source: Agencies

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