Australia should forge ahead with its COVID-19 vaccination strategy and not be deterred by South Africa’s decision to suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a leading researcher says.

Overnight, the South African health minister Zweli Mkhize said the government had paused the rollout of the two-dose viral vector vaccine amid doubts over its efficacy against the highly transmissable B.1.351 strain.

In a television interview with Newzroom Afrika, Dr Mkhize said the vaccine,  developed with the University of Oxford in the UK, had only 22% efficacy in preventing mild-to-moderate disease.

The analysis, which is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, is based on data from more than 2000 participants (median age 31) in South Africa, where B.1.351 was first detected and is now the dominant strain.