South Africa will not use Serum’s Covid-19 vaccine for inoculation: Reports

South Africa intends to return one million Covid-19 vaccine doses to the vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, Economic Times reported.

SII had sent one million doses of its AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, developed in India, to South Africa in early February.

Also read: S Africa to relinquish AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine; move ahead with J&J’s drug

The move has been taken by South Africa as it put hold on the inoculation of AstraZeneca vaccine in the country, citing limited effectiveness against the South African strain of the virus.

The Guardian, however, reported that South Africa will not return the vaccine. Instead, the country will share the doses of the vaccine with other countries via the African Union.

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus jab for emergency use. The vaccine will be rolled out for global consumption, particularly to poorer countries, under the WHO’s program COVAX.

Also read: WHO lists AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for emergency use

South Africa has reported 1,494,119 cases of the novel coronavirus, with 48,313 deaths. While, 1,396,951 people have recovered from the infection in South Africa, as per worldometer report.