Patrick Vallance warns of 'increased’ measures due to COVID strain
Covid has continued to spread across the country, despite the Government introducing nationwide lockdown measures last month. Now a new strain of the coronavirus has been spotted in part of England. Will the Covid vaccine still work on the strain of the virus?
The new Covid variant may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original coronavirus, scientists have warned.
It’s not entirely clear where the mutation originated, but it was first identified by genomics experts in the South East of England.
More than 60 countries have now banned inbound flights from the UK, over fears of spreading the new Covid strain.
But, the good news is that half a million people in the UK have now received their first dose of the Covid vaccine.
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Will the Covid vaccine still work with the new coronavirus variant?
Scientists still aren’t entirely sure how the mutation will impact the vaccine.
But, the jabs have a very large antibody response, so the vaccines’ effectiveness isn’t expected to be affected by the mutation.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed that it was “highly unlikely” the new Covid strain would make the vaccine ineffective.
Scientists are already hard at work to make sure that’s the case.
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“We should be reassured that vaccines stimulate a broad antibody response to the entire spike protein,” said UCL Senior Research Fellow, Lucy van Dorp.
She wrote on The Conversation: “So it is anticipated that their efficacy will not be significantly hampered by mutations. This is already being tested.
“However, there is an increasing body of evidence that other species of seasonal coronaviruses exhibit some ability to escape immunity over longer time periods.
“It is therefore conceivable that we may reach a point where we are required to update our COVID-19 vaccines, as we do for influenza, to reflect the variants in circulation at the time.
“It’s too early to say if this will be the case now, but extensive genome sequencing, data sharing, and standardised reporting of variants will be vital to inform these efforts.”
There’s currently no evidence to suggest the new Covid strain is more dangerous than the original coronavirus.
But, early research suggests that it could be up to 70 percent more transmissible.
Scientists had previously been confused at the rising cases of COVID-19 in the South East of England throughout the November lockdown, but they’ve now partially attributed it to the new Covid strain.
The Covid vaccine has already been rolled out to 500,000 people in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed.
People over the age of 80, as well as some people living in care homes, are eligible for the vaccine.
Despite the continued vaccination programme, Government was still forced to cancel the planned relaxation of Christmas rules.
People living in tier 4 areas of the country have been told to avoid mixing households over the festive period, whereas others can only join one other household for Christmas Day alone.
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