The Serum Institute of India has fully refunded SA for 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine which the country did not want and which had not yet been delivered, health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday.

He added that SA expected to get more than one million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson in April as the country looks to ramp up its vaccination drive.

TimesLIVE reported that the first batch of SA's unwanted AstraZeneca vaccine doses have been dispatched to the AU.

“Although it was a difficult decision for us to halt the rollout of AstraZeneca, due to the challenges posed by the 501Y.V2 variant, it is gratifying to know that 18 member states will benefit from the AU allocation of the AstraZeneca acquisition from SA,” said Mkhize.

The 18 AU member states that will receive the vaccine include Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Liberia, Egypt and Uganda.

Reuters and TimesLIVE