[deanhills]

It should be noted however that the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine had few setbacks, including preliminary results showing its potential ineffectiveness with the South-African SARS-CoV-2 variant, which led its discontinuation in South Africa (according to some News, @deanhills might confirm this for us) and the decline to approve this vaccine in people 65+ without further study in Germany, France and South Korea.

This is correct @fChk.  Although the first major issue, that also led to a conflict with India was the early expiry date on the vaccine, which was around first week of April.  India had failed to warn South Africa of that expiration date at the time when they provided the first batch.  Then when the conflict was not resolved to the satisfaction of the South African Govwernment, the conflict led to cancellation of further batches.  On top of it it was found that the vaccine was almost useless for the new Covid 19 strain of the virus in South Africa.  However, the vaccine did look effective for severe cases of Covid 19.  So some of the scientists thought it would work for severe cases, you get the virus but you don't die from it.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/...21251247v1

There were also discussions that there were bad side effects for the elderly.  Although I didn't see any scientific documentation on it.  Just news reports.

I personally wouldn't touch it though for any age group.  I guess there are many others who think this way as well.  Just imagine the cost of the vaccine - basically millions invested in a major vaccination project in South Africa, and it was virtually aborted before it started.  I'd imagine though with scientists here saying it's good for serious cases, maybe if there is no other vaccine available a patient may still be administered the vaccine - but before April of course bearing also in mind there's a need for a second dose within 28 days.  

Here is a good article about the types of vaccines South Africa is looking at and their expected efficacy.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/...-vaccines/

Most scientists here would want to pursue a vaccine that can be given as a single dose, since South Africa is a third world country with millions to be vaccinated, and logistically the administration and availability of health workers is a great challenge.  So the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the most actively pursued vaccine at the moment.  First batch is expected at beginning of March.  Obviously other vaccines are also pursued as only so many can be purchased of any one vaccine at one time. Novavax is also being purchased. Novavax has to be used in two doses, but seems to have a greater efficacy than Johnson & Johnson.  Novavax however hasn't been tested in South Africa yet for the new Covid 19 strain 501Y.V2.  Reports however from other countries on testing Novavax seem to be promising for efficacy against all three new strains of the virus.