(Karachi) In a major setback to India, South Africa has asked India's Serum Institute to take back the one million COVID-19 vaccine doses the company had sent in early February, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

The decision comes a week after the South Africa said it will put on hold use of AstraZeneca's shot in its vaccination program. South African authorities suspended the use of the shot after preliminary studies suggested limited effectiveness against the more contagious local variant of the virus.

As per the report, Serum Institute of India, which is producing AstraZeneca's shot, had supplied one million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa last week while another 500,000 doses were due to arrive in the next few weeks.

South Africa’s health minister has said the government may sell doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, after the country paused its roll-out following a small clinical trial that showed it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant dominant in the country.

The African country, which is yet to launch its COVID-19 vaccination program, has decided to start vaccinating health workers with Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in the form of an “implementation study” with researchers.