Oxford jab is effective against United Kingdom variant: Study

Health workers unload the first shipment boxes of COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Indian government, at the Kabul airport on Sunday. Pic/AFP

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and produced by AstraZeneca has shown efficacy against the UK variant of the coronavirus, according to an ongoing study by researchers.

Oxford University scientists who developed the ChAdOx1-nCoV19 vaccine have found that it remains effective against at least one of the new variants of the disease, called the B.1.1.7 ‘Kent' coronavirus strain after the south-east England region where it was first discovered late last year.

"Data from our trials of the ChAdOx1 vaccine in the United Kingdom indicate that the vaccine not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, B.1.1.7, which caused the surge in disease from the end of 2020 across the UK," said Andrew Pollard, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity, and Chief Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial.

Developers of the vaccine expect to have a modified jab to cope with the South Africa variant. Sarah Gilbert, lead researcher for the Oxford team, told the BBC on Sunday that "we have a version with the South African spike sequence in the works." "It looks very likely that we can have a new version ready to use in the autumn," she added. Her comments came as Oxford University said early data from a small study suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine offers only "minimal protection" against mild disease caused by the South Africa variant.

Pak Army gets Chinese vaccines
The Chinese military delivered a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to the Pakistan Army on Sunday, days after Islamabad received 500,000 doses of the vaccine from its all-weather ally Beijing. The PLA said in a statement that the Pakistan Army has become the first foreign military to receive the vaccine aid from the Chinese military.

Digital vaccine certificate system
Under the plan, Australians who are inoculated against COVID-19 will be able to show their proof of vaccination certificates on smartphones. The certificates will play a key role in the rollout of vaccines with the government considering making vaccines mandatory in high-risk settings including hospitals and aged care facilities.

2,93,325
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

105,249,764
Total no. of cases worldwide

2,298,606
Total no. of deaths worldwide

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