South Africa plans to "share" the 1-million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses it received from the Serum Institute of India with other African countries via the African Union, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

Anban Pillay, deputy director-general at the Department of Health, told Reuters it was not true that South Africa had asked the Serum Institute to take the 1-million doses back, as reported by Indian daily The Economic Times.

Pillay added that South Africa planned to recover the money spent on the AstraZeneca doses, which arrived in the country at the start of the month, but was still finalising how to do that.