A landmark Oxford University study has confirmed current coronavirus vaccines work well against the Indian variant, raising hopes Britain can avoid a new wave of deaths.
Early findings from the urgent laboratory study into the B.1.617.2 strain show there is only a small loss of protection from the vaccines’ effect.
AstraZeneca and Pfizer doses still create enough antibodies to neutralise the highly contagious Indian strain and significantly diminish the risk of hospitalisation and death.
Sir John Bell, Oxford’s Regius Chair of Medicine, told Times Radio’s T&G programme: “It looks like the Indian variant will be susceptible to the vaccine in the way that others are.
“The data looks rather promising. I think the vaccinated population are going to be fine. And we just need to