South Africa Delays AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccinations

The Financial Times reported on February 7, 2021, the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine does not appear to offer protection against mild and moderate disease caused by coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, that was originally detected in early October 2020.

In both the human trials and tests, the vaccine showed significantly reduced efficacy against the 501Y.V2 viral variant, according to the randomized, double-blind study seen by the Financial Times.

In reaction to this study, South Africa’s health minister Zweli Mkhize stated the country would temporarily halt a planned rollout of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine until there was more information on the vaccine’s efficacy, reported the WSJ on February 7th. South Africa had planned to administer one million vaccine doses.

The 501Y.V2 variant, dominant in South Africa, has recently been discovered in countries worldwide, including the USA. As of February 5th, (2) states had reported five cases of this variant to the U.S. CDC.