LONDON: You have developers Oxford-AstraZeneca the vaccine is expected to have a modified jab to cope with South Africa coronavirus variant by fall, the vaccine’s lead researcher said on Sunday.
Health officials in the UK are trying to limit the spread of the variant first identified in South Africa, amid concerns that it is more contagious or more resistant to existing vaccines. More than 100 cases of the South African variant have been found in the UK.
Sarah Gilbert, chief researcher of the Oxford team, told the BBC on Sunday that “we are working on a version with the top South African sequence”.
“It seems very likely that we can have a new version ready for use in the fall,” she added.
Her comments came the same way Oxford University said early data from a small study suggest that AstraZeneca vaccine it offers only “minimal protection” against mild diseases caused by the South African variant.
The study, which has not yet been evaluated by colleagues, involved 2,000 people, most of whom were young and healthy. The average age of the volunteers was 31 years.
“Protection against moderate-severe illness, hospitalization or death could not be assessed in this study because the target population was at such a low risk,” said Oxford University.
Robin Shattock, a scientist conducting coronavirus vaccine research at Imperial College London, called for caution about the study’s early findings. But he said it was “worrying to some extent that we see that it is not effective against mild or moderate diseases.”
Last week, the British authorities went from house to house to administer the Covid-19 tests in eight areas where the South African variant is believed to be spreading, after a handful of cases were found in people who had no contact with the country or anyone I have traveled there.
The test blitz is an attempt to eliminate the variant before it spreads widely and undermines the launch of the U.S. vaccination. Public health officials are concerned about the South African variant because it contains a protein mutation. typical of the virus, which is targeted by existing vaccines.
Britain has seen the deadliest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, with more than 112,000 confirmed deaths, but has embarked on a faster vaccination plan than the neighboring European Union. To date, the UK has given a first coronavirus vaccine to around 11.5 million people.