Head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed concern over South Africa’s decision to temporarily halt the rollout of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University coronavirus vaccine.
Preliminary research showed it to be less effective against the new variant discovered in South Africa. However, the research is not yet peer-reviewed and did not provide data on older people who are most likely to die or need hospitalisation.
Ghebreyesus says as the trial from which this data emanated was small and involved young participants, more research needs to be done on the efficacy of the vaccine in older age groups that have a higher risk of more severe infection.
“This is clearly concerning news however there are some important caveats. Given the limited sample size of the trial and the younger healthier profile of the participants, it is important to determine whether or not the vaccine remains effective in preventing more severe illness. Several countries are succeeding in suppressing transmission including those where new variants are circulating. It also seems increasingly clear that manufacturers will have to adjust to the evolution of the virus taking into account the latest variant for future shots including boosters.”
WHO updates on COVID-19 vaccine rollout:
Vaccine rollout approach
Co-Chair of governments Inter-Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Professor Salim Abdool-Karim says they are considering a staggered approach to the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa. This would include an initial 100 000 doses of the vaccine being administered.
Addressing a WHO briefing, Karim explained the approach government is considering. “We are just not confident about its efficacy against the 501yv2 variant and so we are proposing an alternative approach to roll out the vaccine and one proposal that is currently being considered is to roll it out initially just in a set manner where the first step includes about 100 000 individuals that are vaccinated in which we monitor the hospitalisation rates. All that has been suggested at this point is to delay the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine until we have the processes in place to undertake this kind of kind if step-wise implementation approach. “
