‘Vaccines are working’ against new Covid variants, says Jonathan Van-Tam
“Vaccines are working” against the Kent Covid variant and will likely reduce the risk of severe disease from new mutations, the deputy chief medical officer has said.
Jonathan Van-Tam said the B117 strain of coronavirus first identified in Kent now accounts for around 95 per cent of all Covid cases in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Van-Tam allayed fears that new mutations may prove resistant to available vaccines, saying both the Pfizer/Biontech and Astrazeneca jabs were “absolutely working against the so-called Kent variant”.
He added that there was not enough evidence at the moment to say the same for both the South Africa and Brazil mutations, but that scientists had “moderately high confidence on first principles that these vaccines are still going to reduce serious disease, hospitalisations and deaths”.
Van-Tam said people will likely require a booster dose of the jab specially suited to new Covid variants later on in the year.
It comes after the Prime Minister said earlier this month that the most vulnerable members of the population will likely need vaccine top-ups for new coronavirus mutations “every year”.
“As new variants appear, it will be more useful than ever to have vaccines that combat all variants,” said Boris Johnson.
“I think we need to be getting ready for a world in which we do have booster jabs against new variants in the autumn and maybe beyond. We should start to think about it as a flu jab — as something elderly and vulnerable people make sure they have every year.”
The government earlier this month announced it had ordered 50m doses of a new Covid vaccine being developed by German biotech firm CureVac that will target emerging coronavirus mutations.
Astrazeneca also confirmed it is developing a “next generation” vaccine that will likely be ready for distribution by the autumn.
So far, almost 18m people have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine in the UK, including all top four priority groups.
The government has set a fresh target to offer a first dose of the vaccine to all over-50s and people with a serious underlying health condition by 15 April. The PM last week announced a separate target to offer jabs to all adults in Britain by 31 July.
However, the UK’s daily vaccination figures have dipped since the total topped 15m earlier this month. On Monday, a total of 192,341 doses were administered across the country —- a significant drop from 275,956 a week before.
Van-Tam said the apparent fall was down to “supply fluctuations”, adding that it “will take a few months” before vaccine manufacturers are able to produce doses in a “steady routine”.