South Africa Asks Serum Institute of India To Take Back 1 Million Vaccine Doses: Report

In quite an embarrassing step, the South Africa Asks Serum Institute of India To Take Back 1 Million Vaccine Doses, according to a report from the sources. The report is largely taken off from the news category off late.

One million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine landed in South Africa in early February and another 500,000 were due to arrive in few weeks. South Africa has asked India’s Serum Institute to take back the just delivered one million COVID-19 vaccine doses the company had sent, a week after the country said it will put on hold use of AstraZeneca's shot in its vaccination program.

Serum Institute of India, which is producing the AstraZeneca's vaccine, has emerged as a key world supplier.

The South African government paused its rollout following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant – the one dominant in the country.

AstraZeneca has accepted its vaccine appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant, based on data from a joint study by South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University.

The African country, which is yet to launch its COVID-19 vaccination program, has decided to start vaccinating health workers with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine in the form of an "implementation study" with researchers.