A health worker in the military prepares a dose of Covishield, AstraZeneca / Oxford’s Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine, made by the Indian Serum Institute, at an army hospital in Colombo on January 29, 2021.
sign S. Kodikara | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s deputy chief of medical services, downplayed the likelihood that a coronavirus variant from South Africa would become widespread across the country in the coming months.
His comments, delivered at a press conference Monday evening, follow concerns that the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford jab is showing limited effectiveness against that particular species, formally known as the B.1.351 mutation.
“There is no reason to believe that the South African variant will overtake or overtake our current virus in the coming months,” Van-Tam said referring to the British mutation first found in South East England.
He said the “imminent threat” would come from the variant found in the UK, against which vaccines have proven more effective.
South Africa said on Sunday it would suspend use of the shot in its vaccination program after a study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that the AstraZeneca vaccine provided “ minimal protection ” against mild to moderate disease caused by the mutation in South Africa. Africa. Pharmacist AstraZeneca is now racing to adapt its Covid-19 vaccine to the new variants.
Researchers from the University of Witwatersrand and others in South Africa, and the University of Oxford, noted that the study was small, with only about 2,000 volunteers with an average age of 31 years.
Oxford University said that “protection against moderate illness, hospitalization or death could not be assessed in this study because the target population was so low at risk.”
Van-Tam added later on Monday that early model data does not suggest a “transferability benefit” for the strain found in South Africa. He said there were a small number of cases in the UK at the time, 147 infections reportedly.
“I don’t think this is something we should be worried about right now,” he said.
– CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.