UK Monitoring Vaccine Efficacy Against CCP Virus Variants: Health Secretary
The British government is monitoring the efficacy of existing CCP virus vaccines to see if the jabs need to be modified for new variants of the virus, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday.
“We are doing a huge amount of work with the scientists and the pharmaceutical industry to develop modified vaccines, should they be necessary. We’re also monitoring the results of work to understand the efficacy of the existing vaccines against the variants of concern,” Hancock told the House of Commons.
The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil both contain a key mutation called E484K, which is thought to be impacting vaccine efficacy.
Israeli lockdown extended as defiance by ultra-Orthodox draws outrage
From CNN s Andrew Carey and Mike Schwartz in Jerusalem
Thousands of members of the ultra-Orthodox community participate in a funeral for prominent rabbi Meshulam Soloveitchik, in Jerusalem, on January 31. Ariel Schalit/AP
Israel will remain under lockdown until Friday at the earliest after the Cabinet voted to extend restrictions for five more days.
Speaking at the start of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told senior government colleagues that the British and South African mutations of the virus were “stretching the health care system to the maximum.”
“We are in a very tight race against the spread of the mutations to vaccinate as many citizens of Israel as possible. I hope that as long as there are no additional surprises, we will be able to gradually open the education system and our economy,’ Netanyahu said.