Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines that arrived in South Africa last-week Monday has been reported to be less efficient and expected to expire soon.
Prof Shabir Madhi of Wits University revealed during a briefing that studies were done in the wake of the new variant – known as 501Y.V2 or B.1.351 – showed it was not statistically significantly effective against mild or moderate infection, but that it’s likely effective against “severe disease” caused by Covid-19.
Health Minister, Dr ZwelI Mkhize, confirmed that the AstraZeneca vaccine offered only limited protection against mild and moderate cases of the SA discovered COVID-19 variant. Hence, he temporarily halted the roll out of the 1 million vaccines.
Updates on the vaccines put fear in the minds of the people, and many have taken to social media to slam the Health minister.
The rollout has been suspended temporarily
— Entrepreneur Zone (@SayEntrepreneur) February 7, 2021
so the new vaccine has an efficacy rate of 22% against the 501Y.V2 variant and expires in April, i was called names when i warned you guys about indians look now 😭😭.
— The WIZRD 🧙🏿♂️🔮 (@AdelesBabyDaddy) February 7, 2021
The arrival of the first one million #COVID19 vaccines from the Serum Institute of India was a historic moment for South Africa. Watch a few highlights here: pic.twitter.com/mbpDtZl2El
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) February 2, 2021
Janssen Ad26 COVID-19 vaccine showed efficacy in prevention of moderate to severe or critical COVID-19 infection .The vaccine was 57% effective in South Africa, where nearly all of the cases were due to infection with the new variant: Prof Gray#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/COelF73gx8
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 7, 2021
