New data suggests the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab offers only limited protection against the variant discovered in South Africa and now appearing in communities across the UK. It still has an effect but with reduced efficacy.

The study from Oxford University has not yet been peer-reviewed. Most of the 2,000 subjects involved are young and healthy. 

Sarah Gilbert, part of the Oxford-AstraZeneca team at Oxford University said that they were already working on a new jab that is more effective against the South African-discovered variant. 

"It looks very likely that we can have a new version ready to use in the autumn," she added.

READ MORE

Denmark's $33bn renewable energy island

The toolkit defeating the pangolin poachers

Will soldiers become obsolete?

As a result of the new data, community testing has been stepped up across the UK in an effort to contain this new potential spoiler for an otherwise promising timetable of immunization.

Tony Miller is a local councillor in Worcestershire, one area where the variant has been spotted.

"We're still saying if you've had the vaccine go along for the test," he says. "We want to cover every possible corner and get this thing killed. We need to get back to some normality."

Prime task of protection

Oxford's Gilbert says there's still plenty of protection in the vaccine: "We may not be reducing the total number of cases, but there's still protection in that case against deaths, hospitalizations and severe disease."

In other words, the prime task of protecting hospitals is still effective. Nevertheless, all the manufacturers are now working on new versions of their products in readiness for mutations capable of avoiding vaccine antibodies.

The World Health Organization's advisory panel has tentatively scheduled a review of the AstraZeneca vaccine for February 8, after a growing number of European countries limited the use of the AstraZeneca jab on older people, citing a lack of data. 

The UK government's vaccination program goes from strength to strength, with schools now set to open by March 8 and all over-50s being told to get ready for their jab by May.

These are promises ministers are finding it easier by the day to make.

However, there are concerns that uptake for the vaccines amongst BAME communities has been disappointingly low. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has said he is "very concerned" about the number of people from non-white ethnic communities who are hesitant of taking the vaccine.

Also overshadowing the vaccination success story is the growing clamour for a timeline of relaxation measures. Many are tired of lockdown and are growing increasingly vocal as they demand to know when they can get on with their lives again.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson can only promise a road map later this month. This is partly because of the threat of new variants and how they might disrupt the current vaccine programme.

One step already ruled out by government is the introduction of vaccine passports. Those inoculated will simply receive a Health Service card with the dates of their jabs, which they can deploy as they choose.

UK ministers are now said to be looking at making vaccinations available in the workplace, targeting the 30 million younger adults once the main priority groups have had their jabs.

A priority list for the healthy is slowly taking shape, including plans for emergency service workers, supermarket staff, essential production workers, local council staff and social workers.

Plans for almost everyone are taking shape – but still with no date for the end of lockdown.

Video editor: James Ireland