The Malawi government plans to proceed with plans to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine despite misgivings about its efficacy against a more potent variant of the COVID-19 virus, Health Minister Khumbize Chiponda said on Monday night.
Chiponda said Malawi would go ahead with plans to acquire the vaccine, a day after South Africa announced it was suspending the rollout of its vaccination programme after new research showed that AstraZeneca offered minimal protection against the he mutated COVID-19 variant currently circulating in southern Africa.
“We are going ahead as planned,” Chiponda said.
The country expects to receive its first consignment of the vaccine at the end of February for rollout in March. It will consist of 1.5 million doses.
According to the latest data, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine protected three in four people against variants from the first wave, while it protects one in four people from the new variant in the second wave.
The new Covid-19 variant, scientifically known as SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2, is very common in South Africa and neighbouring countries.
Malawi has so far confirmed 27,422 COVID-19 cases and 874 deaths.
JN/APA