Health officials in South Africa have stated that the rollout of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine is being put on hold in the country as a study has shown that it offered diminished protection against the coronavirus variant that was first identified in the country.

South Africa’s Minister of Health Dr. Zweli Mkhize mentioned that it would be a temporary halt as scientists try to determine the most effective way of rolling out the vaccine. The country will go ahead and roll out the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.

Early data from a study had pointed that two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine yielded minimal protection against mild and moderate COVID-19 caused by the variant first detected in South Africa… (CNN, February 8, 2021)