Take Back Your Vaccines, SA Tells Drug Maker

17 FEB, 2021 - 00:02 

JOHANNESBURG. — The South African government has asked drugmaker Serum Institute of India (SII) to take back the one million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccines it had sent in early February, an Indian newspaper reported yesterday.

The request comes a week after the country suspended the use of the shot after preliminary studies suggested limited effectiveness against the more contagious local variant of the virus.

South Africa received one million doses of the license-made AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine last week and another 500,000 were set to arrive in the next few weeks.

South Africa’s health minister previously noted that the vaccines which arrived from India have an expiry date in April and had asked SII to swap them out for doses with later expiry dates. But after the vaccines roll out was halted last week, the minister said the government may sell the doses to other nations.

The country, which has yet to begin its vaccination programme, will begin vaccinating health workers with the Johnson & Johnson single dose shot as part of an “implementation study” with researchers, although a date for the rollout has not yet been set.

The paper cited officials aware of the development, however, SII has not yet commented on the issue. 

— Economic Times.