ASTRAZENECA VACCINATIONS PUT ON HOLD

South Africa will put on hold use of Astrazeneca’s COVID-19 shot in its vaccination program, after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild-to-moderate infection caused by the country’s dominant coronavirus variant.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Sunday that the government would await advice from scientists on how best to proceed.

In an analysis based mostly on infections by the new variant, there was only a 22 per cent lower risk of developing mild-to-moderate COVID-19 versus those given a placebo. Although researchers said the figure was not statistically significant, due to trial design, it is well below the benchmark of at least 50 per cent regulators have set.

Astrazeneca said on Saturday that it believed its vaccine could protect against severe disease and that it had already started adapting it against the 501y.v2 variant.