South African government has paused the country’s roll-out plan for one million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines received last week after it was discovered to be less effective against COVID-19 variants in the country.

AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines arrived in South Africa from Serum Institute of India last week, with President Cyril Ramaphosa saying health and other frontline workers would be the first to take jabs.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize said in a video conference that experts have concluded that AstraZeneca doses offer limited protection against 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant identified in South Africa.

“What does that mean for our vaccination programme which we said will start in February? The answer is it will proceed. From next week for the next four weeks, we expect that there will be J&J vaccines, there will be Pfizer vaccines. So what will be available to the health workers will be those vaccines,” Mr. Mkhize said in an online briefing.

The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines that the country received will be stored in warehouses while scientists conduct more research and make suggestion base on their findings.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine will remain with us up until the scientists give us clear indications as to what we need to do,” Mr. Mhize said

South Africa has been the worst-hit country on the continent with over 1.4 million cases and 46,290 death rate caused by coronavirus infection. While Nigeria has yet to receive a single dose of coronavirus vaccines with an estimated population of 206 million.

Last week, controversies arose that WHO excluded the country from receiving the much-expected 100,000 Pfizer vaccines this month due to lack of storage facilities.