Senior health officials in the United States, for their part, confirmed that they are closely following the new variant of the virus that is spreading in the United Kingdom, but suspending travel to that country has not yet been considered, such as several European countries have done. .
Vaccines against COVID-19 are effective against the mutated strain detected in the UK, European experts said Sunday by the German health minister.
“As far as we know, and after discussions that have taken place between experts from the European authorities,” the new variant of the virus “has no impact on vaccines” that “remain just as effective,” he said. Minister Jens Spahn on the public television channel ZDF.
“It would be very good news,” added the minister, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
European Union experts, along with representatives of the German health authority (RKI), discussed the issue on Sunday, a source from Germany’s Ministry of Health told AFP.
The mutation of the virus has mainly been observed in Great Britain and has led many European countries to suspend flights from that country.
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This variant of the coronavirus may be considered 70% more contagious than the previous one.
Next Monday, the European Medicines Agency is due to meet to approve in principle the first vaccine to be used in EU territory, the one developed by the Pfizer-BioNTech laboratories and already in use in several countries, including the United States and The United Kingdom.
US is closely following new variant of the spread of coronavirus in UK
The United States is “very carefully” observing the variant of the virus spreading in the United Kingdom, senior health officials said Sunday, noting that the ban on travel to that country was not on the table at this time.
Moncef Slaoui, senior adviser to the government’s logistics operation “Warp Speed” to acquire and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, told CNN that “it is not yet known” whether this variant of the virus is present in the country.
We are “looking at this very carefully” in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.
At this point, he said, none of the strains of the virus appears to be resistant to available vaccines.
“This particular variant in the UK is very unlikely to have escaped the immunity of the vaccine,” Slaoui said.
“I don’t think there is reason to be alarmed at this point,” admiral Brett Giroir, the official overseeing coronavirus testing in the United States, agreed at the request of ABC.
He also estimated that there is no need to suspend flights from the UK for now, as several European countries did.
El Salvador also joined the list of countries banning access to flights from the United Kingdom and South Africa due to the arrival of the new variant COVID-19, President Nayib Bukele said via his Twitter account.
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