Last checked at 
* S.Africa paused AstraZeneca rollout after trial
* Data showed vaccine less effective against variant
* Govt plans to share AstraZeneca shots with continent
*
(Recasts with Pillay comments, adds detail, context)
By Alexander Winning
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 16 (Reuters) - South Africa plans to share
a million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses it received
from the Serum Institute of India with other African countries
via the African Union (AU), a senior health official said on
Tuesday.
The country paused the rollout of the AstraZeneca shots this
month, after preliminary trial data showed they offered minimal
protection against mild to moderate illness from the country's
dominant coronavirus variant.
It plans to start inoculating healthcare workers with
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine as soon as this week in a
research study.
"The doses are going to be shared with countries on the
continent ... via the AU," Anban Pillay, deputy director-general
at the Department of Health, told Reuters.
He added that South Africa would look to recover money spent
on the vaccine but was still finalising how to do that.
Pillay said it was not true that South Africa had asked the
Serum Institute to take back the million doses that arrived at
the start of the month, as reported by Indian newspaper The
Economic Times.
The AU's disease control body said last week it was not
"walking away" from AstraZeneca's vaccine but would target its
use in countries that have not reported cases of the more
contagious 501Y.V2 variant first identified in South Africa late
last year.
The AU said six countries other than South Africa had
confirmed the variant was circulating, but there are concerns it
has spread elsewhere.
AstraZeneca says it believes its vaccine protects against
severe COVID-19 and that it has started adapting it against the
501Y.V2 variant.
SPUTNIK DOCUMENTATION
South Africa's health ministry said the manufacturers of
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine had submitted documentation to local
medicines regulator SAHPRA for registration.
The ministry said it was "continuously engaging" with the
manufacturers of Sputnik V and that it had signed a
non-disclosure agreement with China's Sinopharm to receive more
information about its vaccine.
It added that scientists were conducting detailed analyses
on Sputnik V, following concerns about the effects of its Ad5
component on communities with a high prevalence of HIV.
South Africa has one of the highest HIV burdens globally.
SAHPRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Editing by
Nick Macfie)
