- AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot says his company’s COVID-19 vaccine “must remain effective” against mutated virus strains, reports The Sunday Times.
- “But we can not be sure, so we are going to test it,” Soriot told the newspaper.
- A new virus strain discovered in the UK could be up to 70% more transmissible, according to Reuters.
- At least 7 people in Japan tested positive for the new variant, reports The Associated Press.
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The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is expected to be effective against the mutation of COVID-19 strains, including those discovered in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
“So far, we think the vaccine should remain effective,” CEO Pascal Soriot told The Sunday Times.
“But we can not be sure, so we are going to test it,” he told the newspaper.
Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, in 2014 in London.
Neil Hall / Reuters
Since the vaccination channels were on the way worldwide last week, the news also spread about mutated coronavirus variants.
The first variant, discovered in the UK, had 23 documented changes. It could be about 70% more transmissible and had already infected about 40,000 people in the UK by the middle of the week, according to Reuters. According to health officials, the second variant was first found in South Africa, but moved to the United Kingdom last week.
“This new variant is very worrying because it is even more transmissible and appears to have mutated further than the new variant discovered in the UK,” British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday.
As the tribes spread, other countries closed their doors to British visitors.
According to Reuters, the new tribe was discovered in Japan on Friday by travelers from the United Kingdom. About seven people, including five who traveled from the UK to Japan, tested positive, The Associated Press reported Sunday.
According to the Associated Press, Japan on Monday is planning a comprehensive ban on foreign residents entering the country, in part because of the new tribes.
Soriot said UN Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, said that the vaccination of AstraZeneca is protected against the strains of the coronavirus. There was a ‘relatively large’ possibility that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine would work against variants, Sahin said last week.
The UK government has signed deals for 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford. The vaccine is the largest single order of the government, which has signed transactions for 357 million doses of different vaccines.
According to Christmas Eve, about 617,000 people in the UK received doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, according to official statistics.
The British government is now reviewing the vaccines of AstraZeneca and Moderna.
“The NHS across the UK are working incredibly hard to expand the vaccination program as quickly as possible to ensure that everyone on the priority list can easily get their vaccine,” said Nadhim Zahawi, the minister overseeing the deployment of vaccines. said in a statement.