Reducing coronavirus transmission through measures such as face masks during vaccination programmes is necessary to lower the likelihood of vaccine-resistant strains emerging, a study has suggested.
Researchers simulated the probability that a vaccine-resistant strain may emerge in a population of 10 million people over three years with vaccinations starting after the first year.
The modelling suggested a fast rate of vaccination decreases the probability of a resistant strain.
However, it also showed that if relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions happened when most people in the population had already been vaccinated, the probability of a resistant strain emerging greatly increased.
Fyodor Kondrashov, of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, and colleagues suggest this may be due to a growth advantage of the resistant strain over the original strain in the presence of vaccines.
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