South Africa will dispose of 2 million of the doses as the United States has ruled that ingredients may have been contaminated during the production in a Baltimore plant. This was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The development will likely be devastating to South Africa’s vaccination plans, as the country is fully reliant on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for its immunisation programme and as it faces its third wave of coronavirus cases, Bloomberg noted.
The burden of bridging the vaccine gap will now fall on the country’s largest pharma company Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, which will begin producing the vaccines by mid-week at its factory in Gqebherha (earlier known as Port Elizabeth), on contract from J&J, the report said.
South Africa had ordered around 31 million doses of the single-shot vaccine to inoculate at least two-thirds of its 60 million strong population.
Follow our LIVE blog on the COVID-19 pandemic here
The country had earlier in April also suspended its roll-out of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine over potential blood clot risks reported by the United States. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize had then announced: "We have determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated."
South Africa in February, scrapped plans for administering the Oxford University-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines in the country after it was found that the dose was "not as effective" against the 'Beta' variant first identified within its borders.
Mkhize has said AstraZeneca “does not prevent mild to moderate disease” of the variant and said they would only use J&J's vaccine. This despite the fact that the one-shot J&J vaccine is still being tested internationally and was then still not approved in any country.
