After South Africa suspected its vaccine rollout, there have been questions asked about the potency of the vaccine against new strains. The UK government said some scientists are already working on Vaccines for most variants.
Medical researchers at work to develop vaccines boosters
Scientists are in labs trying to create booster vaccines that will fight with the ranging COVID-19 strains that have many across the world according to the UK health minister. This comes after concerns about the lack of potency of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine towards the South African variant.
The vaccine has good layers of protection against the 'Kent' strain. However, on Monday, health officials said the vaccine shows '' little' protection against the South African strain. About 159 cases of these variants are visible in the United Kingdom. UK's health minister Edward Argar stated that it was confident that before summer, there will be a jab that could protect people against many variants.
The minister also said there wasn't 'proof' that the UK's vaccine can't fight severe cases of the infection. The South African strain called 502.V2 has accounted for about 92%of fresh COVID-19 cases in the African country, but due to Monday's discovery about the AstraZeneca administration.
Kent strain more serious than South African strain - Minister
The minister insisted that all research needs to be critically looked at, but there isn't any evidence to suggest the Oxford vaccine cannot prevent tough cases of COVID-19. "Britain has very few citizens with the strain unlike the 'Kent' variant that has infected thousands", he said.
In other news, the minister of vaccine said citizens' confidence would increase if the vaccines are potent against the new strains. In a chat with reporters, Mr. Zahawi stated : "Our health researchers are working tirelessly on new vaccines to combat new strains of the virus".
An expert in infectious disease and health matters, Dr. Peter English has mentioned that scientists should focus more research on making vaccines that can fight the new strain before June 2021.
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