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JOHANNESBURG, Feb 16 (Reuters) - South Africa plans to share
the 1 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 vaccine
this month, after preliminary trial data showed it 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 doses but was still finalising how to do that.
Pillay said a report in Indian newspaper The Economic Times
that South Africa had asked the Serum Institute to take back the
1 million doses that arrived at the start of the month was not
true.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning
Editing by Tim Cocks)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
