British scientists are worried that COVID-19 vaccines may not prove effective against the new Coronavirus variant reported in South Africa.
While addressing the media, UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa is a bigger risk than the highly infectious UK variant, adding that the British government is incredibly concerned about the developments emerging from South Africa.
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A scientific advisor to the British government, on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that the reason behind the government’s increased concerns regarding the South African strain is that it is not as confident the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the British variant.
He added that the South African variant is different from other mutated versions because it has multiple mutations in the important “spike” protein that the virus uses to infect human cells.
It also contains a higher viral load which means that there is a higher concentration of virus particles in the infected person, resulting in a much higher level of transmission, the advisor noted.
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Besides, the British government has imposed new and more severe lockdown restrictions which will come into effect after midnight tonight and will last till 15 February.
The UK has reported 58,784 new cases of Coronavirus in the last 24 hours- the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic. It is also the seventh straight day that the UK has reported more than 50,000 daily new cases of Coronavirus.