South Africa ends distribution of AstraZeneca vaccine,

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa has suspended plans to inoculate its frontline health care workers with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after a small clinical trial suggested it isn’t effective in preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country.

South Africa received its first million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week and was expected to begin giving jabs to health care workers in mid-February. But the disappointing early results indicate an inoculation drive using the AstraZeneca vaccine may not be useful.

Preliminary data from a small study suggested the AstraZeneca vaccine offers only “minimal protection against mild-moderate disease” caused by the variant in South Africa. The variant appears more infectious and is driving a deadly resurgence of the disease in the country, currently accounting for more than 90% of the COVID-19 cases, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize said Sunday night.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine appeared effective against the original strain but not against the variant,” Dr. Mkhize said. “We have decided to put a temporary hold on the rollout of the vaccine . ... More work needs to be done.”

The study, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, involved 2,000 people, most of whom were young and healthy. The volunteers’ average age was 31.

“Protection against moderate-severe disease, hospitalization or death could not be assessed in this study as the target population were at such low risk,” said a statement issued by Oxford University and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Scientists will be studying whether the AstraZeneca vaccine is effective in preventing severe disease and death against the variant, Dr. Mkhize said.

Other vaccines have shown reduced efficacy against the variant but have still provided good protection from serious disease and death.

Public health officials are concerned about the South Africa variant because it contains a mutation of the virus’s characteristic spike protein, which is targeted by existing vaccines. South African officials say the variant is more contagious, and evidence is emerging it may be more virulent.

South Africa will urgently roll out other vaccines to inoculate as many as possible in the coming months, Dr. Mkhize said. Other South African scientists on Sunday said the clinical trials for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine show good results against the variant.

The early results for the AstraZeneca vaccine against the variant could have farreaching implications, as many other countries in Africa and beyond have been planning to use the AstraZeneca shot. The international COVAX initiative has bought the AstraZeneca vaccine in bulk from the Serum Institute of India.

The developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine expect to have a modified jab to cope with the South Africa coronavirus variant by autumn, the vaccine’s lead researcher said Sunday.

Sarah Gilbert, lead researcher for the Oxford team, told the BBC on Sunday, “We have a version with the South African spike sequence in the works.”

“It looks very likely that we can have a new version ready to use in the autumn,” she added.

Authorities in England last week went house to house to administer COVID19 testing in eight areas where the South Africa variant is believed to be spreading after a handful of cases were found in people who had no contact with the country or anyone who traveled there.

More than 100 cases of the South African variant have been found in the U.K. The testing blitz is a bid to snuff out the variant before it spreads widely and undermines the U.K.’s vaccination rollout.

Britain has seen Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with over 112,000 confirmed deaths, but it has embarked on a speedier vaccination plan than the neighboring European Union. So far, the U.K. has given a first coronavirus vaccine jab to about 11.5 million people.