South Africa suspended vaccinations for a new coronavirus vaccine produced by British company AstraZeneca on Sunday after a new study showed it was less effective against a mutant strain of the virus found in the country. The World health Organization held a meeting Monday to discuss the latest developments in South Africa.
The study, conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, concluded that the British company AstraZeneca’s vaccine offers only “limited protection for young adults against the mild to moderate disease caused by the South African variant of the virus strain “.
The results of this report hit South Africa hard. More than 46,000 people have died from the new coronavirus in South Africa. South Africa had planned to begin administering a total of 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the population in the coming days. But the study found that the vaccine was only 22 percent effective in South Africans with moderate to mild cases of the new coronavirus variant.
The study did not examine the effectiveness of the vaccine in patients with severe disease. But the Variant virus has been found in at least 32 other countries, including the United States.
AstraZeneca said Sunday that it is already developing another vaccine that is more effective against the South African variant of the virus and expects it to be available this fall.
Last week, Mexico began registering online for vaccination appointments, to the dismay of millions of Mexicans. The first people designated to use the site to schedule vaccination appointments were older people.
In an interview with the Guardian, one man said it took him “three days of tossing and turning with the site” to complete an appointment for his mother to get the vaccine. He said his mother “wouldn’t have been able to do it without me.
The site’s erratic rollout is frustrating for a country with the third highest number of deaths from the new coronavirus in the world. According to the Johns Hopkins New Coronavirus Resource Center, Mexico has more than 166,200 new coronavirus deaths, trailing only Brazil’s 231,534 and the United States’ 463,477.
Meanwhile, the U.S. remains the most infected region in the Hopkins profile with more than 27 million cases, followed by India with 10.8 million cases and Brazil with 9.5 million.
Over the weekend, both Iran and China launched new coronavirus vaccines. On Sunday, Iran announced it had developed the Razi Cov Pars vaccine developed by the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute (RVSRI). Researchers will begin human testing this week.
On Saturday, China’s State Drug Administration said in a statement that it approved Friday the use of CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
This is the second vaccine approved for public vaccination in China. The first vaccine, developed by a Chinese institution owned by the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Corporation, was approved for use two months ago.
The Kexing vaccine, which has been used in at least five other countries, received emergency approval last July to be administered to high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and employees of state-owned enterprises.
While the study continues, the Coxin vaccine has also received conditional approval for administration to the general public. The company must submit updated data and reports of any adverse reactions after the vaccine becomes available.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that more than 59 million doses of the new coronavirus vaccine have been distributed across the United States. As of Sunday morning, more than 41 million doses of Moderna Moderna and Pfizer Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines had been administered, with more than 31.5 million people receiving the first dose and more than 9 million receiving the second, according to the CDC.
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