SOUTH Africa's drugs regulator SAHPRA said yesterday that it had approved a "section 21" emergency use application for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. SAHPRA added in a statement that the approval was subject to further efficacy and safety surveillance of the vaccine in the country, including monitoring its efficacy against the dominant local coronavirus variant. South Africa is the hardest-hit country on the African continent in terms of recorded coronavirus cases and deaths and suffered a severe second wave of infections driven by the more infectious 501Y.V2 variant, first identified late last year. It kick-started its vaccination…