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COVID-19 Vaccine South Africa

AstraZeneca Vaccine Only ‘Minimally Effective’ Against South African COVID-19 Variant, says Researchers

Image sourced from TimesLIVE The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘minimally effective’ against the South African variant, according to the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics (VIDA) research unit. So far, South Africa has received one million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. In an official report, researchers from South Africa and the UK found that “viral neutralisation by sera induced by the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 coronavirus vaccine against the B.1.351 coronavirus variant were substantially reduced when compared with the ‘original’ strain of the coronavirus”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, Sarah Gilbert revealed that efforts are alrea...

South Africa Begins First COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

Sourced from Getty Images The University of Witswatersrand has announced that South Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial is set to begin, with participants to be enrolled by the end of the week. “This is a landmark moment for South Africa and Africa at this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter winter in South Africa and pressure increases on public hospitals, now more than ever we need a vaccine to prevent infection by COVID-19,” Professor of Vaccinology at Wits University and Director of the South Africa Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, Shabir Madhi, says in a virtual briefing. This new trial aims to find a vaccine that will prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is the virus that causes COVID-19. “We began screening participants for ...