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- South Africa has scrapped plans to vaccinate frontline health workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine this month after a small clinical trial suggested it may not be effective against the new strain of COVID-19 dominant in the country
- An Oxford University study found the vaccine only provides “minimal protection” against mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection
- However, this study consisted of only 2000 volunteers with an average age of 31
- As such, Oxford said it could not assess the vaccine’s protection against severe infection given how low-risk each of the participants was
- Nevertheless, the university is already working on a second-generation vaccine that will be designed to target the South African strain of COVID-19
- South Africa secured 20 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in late-January, just before the first doses of the AstraZeneca jab arrived in the country
- South Africa has recorded almost 1.5 million total COVID-19 infections and over 46,000 deaths
South Africa has scrapped plans to vaccinate frontline health workers with the AstraZeneca vaccine this month after a small clinical trial suggested it may not be effective against the new strain of COVID-19 dominant in the country.
Data from an Oxford University study suggested the vaccine provides “minimal protection” against mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection. It’s important to note, however, that the Oxford study consisted of just 2000 people with an average age of 31 and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The South African Government received one million doses of the vaccine earlier this month, with a roll-out plan to front-line workers slated for mid-February. This rollout has now been suspended based on the data from the Oxford trial.
“In this study of approximately 2000 volunteers who were on average 31 years old, mild disease was defined as at least one symptom of COVID-19. Protection against moderate-severe disease, hospitalisation or death could not be assessed in this study as the target population were at such low risk,” Oxford said in a media statement.
Researchers from the university said work is already underway to produce a second-generation vaccine that will be designed to specifically target the South African variant of COVID-19.
South African health officials have previously expressed concern over the country’s variant strain because it contains a mutation of the coronavirus’ spike protein, which is typically what vaccines have been targeting.
“This study confirms that the pandemic coronavirus will find ways to continue to spread in vaccinated populations, as expected, but, taken with the promising results from other studies in South Africa using a similar viral vector, vaccines may continue to ease the toll on health care systems by preventing severe disease,” said Professor Andrew Pollard, the Chief Investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial.
South Africa secured 20 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in late-January, just before the first doses of the AstraZeneca jab arrived in the country.
At the time, the country had planned to vaccinate two-thirds of its population, or 40 million people, by the end of 2021. How the disappointing AstraZeneca results will affect this vaccination plan is not yet known.
South Africa has been hit harder by COVID-19 than any other country in Africa, with almost 1.5 million infections reported across the nation. Of those, over 46,000 people have died.
