Current COVID-19 vaccines will still be effective against the new fast-spreading strain of the virus, according to EU experts.
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, told broadcaster ZDF that ‘according to everything we know so far’ the new strain ‘has no impact on the vaccines’ which will remain ‘just as effective’.
He said the information emerged following a EU experts’ meeting on Sunday in Berlin. In a statement, the French Government supported this claim, saying: ‘This genetic variant does not seem to entail, at this stage of knowledge, a heightened seriousness or a resistance to the vaccine.’ Mr Spahn was referring in particular to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which the NHS started rolling out early this month.
The jab has also been approved in the US and is on the brink of receiving approval from the European Medicines Agency. (Metro)