Johnson confident on AstraZeneca vaccine after S Africa move

Boris Johnson and his ministers moved to calm nerves over the UK’s vaccine programme on Monday, following concerns that the Oxford university/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab might be less effective with the new South African virus strain.

The UK prime minister said he was “very confident” in the vaccines the UK was rolling out, saying they were “effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness and death, which is the most important thing”.

Almost 13m people have now received a first dose of a Covid-19 jab as the government confirmed that its mid-February target for vaccinating the 15m most vulnerable Britons would be met.

Johnson’s comments came after South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca jab. The move followed publication of a limited study showing that the vaccine was not as effective in preventing mild and moderate illness associated with the 501.V2 variant of Covid-19, which was first identified in the country.

The Johnson government has ordered 100m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which forms the basis of its efforts to offer protection to the most vulnerable and ease England’s nationwide lockdown.

Johnson said there was “good evidence” that it was stopping most serious illnesses, as well as cutting the spread of the disease. “I think 67 per cent reduction in transmission with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.

Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said at a Downing Street press conference that “early data” did not suggest that the South African variant had a “transmissibility advantage” over the variant dominant in the UK.

“There is no reason to think the South African variant will catch up or overtake our current virus in the next few months,” he said, noting that 147 cases of the 501.V2 mutation had been found in the UK.

Van-Tam added that coronavirus would probably have to be treated like seasonal flu in future with further rounds of vaccinations. “I don’t think we’ll eradicate coronavirus . . . I think it’s going to be with humankind forever.”

Matt Hancock, health secretary, said the UK had had significantly higher levels of vaccine take-up than the 75 per cent that the government had expected.

Hancock said that 93 per cent of eligible care-home residents had received a first jab, 91 per cent of those over 80 years old, 95 per cent of 70-75 year-olds and 75 per cent of 70-74 year-olds — the most recent group to be eligible for jabs.

With the most vulnerable 14.6m Britons on course to have been vaccinated by February 15 the focus will then shift to the next 17m people, who will receive the jab by the end of April, a spokesperson said.

Once the most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated, the government intends to gradually ease the nationwide lockdown for England, starting with schools returning on March 8.

Nikki Kanani, medical director for primary care at NHS England and a GP, said the vaccination programme, the biggest in health service history, “is off to a strong start with every eligible care home receiving a visit and millions more people being vaccinated at one of over 1,500 centres across the country”.

Johnson said he had “no doubt that vaccines generally are going to offer the way out” but warned that the UK’s infection rate remained “extremely high”.