South Africa throws away 2 million vaccines against …

South Africa, with just over 1% of its population vaccinated, announced this Sunday to withdraw two million vaccines from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) due to a “problem” during its manufacture in the USA.

South African regulator Safra said in a statement that “made a decision not to distribute vaccines produced from batches of inappropriate medicinal components. “

US officials said last week that “several batches” – equivalent to several million doses – manufactured in the country should be discarded. The tests carried out revealed that the components of the British vaccine AstraZeneca, produced in the same location, were mistakenly mixed with the J&J formula.

The South African Minister of Health, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, who recognized a setback in the vaccination program, said on Saturday that the affected lots are being stored in a laboratory.

South Africa, with a population of 59 million, has delivered 31 million units of this single-dose immunizing agent. The country has also obtained 30 million injectables from Pfizer, which require two doses and must be stored at extremely low temperatures.

The government had already temporarily suspended administration of the J&J vaccine in April, after a few blood clots in the USA. In February, the South African authorities also dropped over 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca doubting its effectiveness against the local variant of the virus.

South Africa has entered a third wave of infections of coronavirus. It is currently the African country hardest hit by the pandemic with nearly 58,000 deaths and more than 1.7 million infections.