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LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - There is no evidence that the
Astrazeneca vaccine does not prevent death or serious
illness, and South Africa has only imposed a temporary halt on
using the vaccine, a British junior health minister said on
Monday.
South Africa will put on hold use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19
shot in its vaccination programme after data showed it gave
minimal protection against mild-to-moderate infection caused by
the country's dominant coronavirus variant.
"There is no evidence that this vaccine is not effective in
preventing hospitalisation and severe illness and death, which
ultimately is what we're seeking with these vaccines today,"
Britain's Edward Argar told Sky.
"The dominant strains in this country are not the South
African strain, there are a small number of cases of that, the
dominant strains here are the historic one we've had, and then
the Kent variant, against which this vaccine is highly
effective."
Israel is currently far ahead of the rest of the world on
vaccinations per head of population, followed by the United Arab
Emirates, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States and
then Spain, Italy and Germany.
The United Kingdom, which has the world's fifth worst
official death toll, has vaccinated 12.014 million people with a
first dose. Around half a million people have received a second
dose.
While thousands of individual changes have arisen as the
virus mutates on replication and evolves into new variants, only
a tiny minority are likely to be important or change the virus
in an appreciable way, according to the British Medical Journal.
Among coronavirus variants currently most concerning for
scientists and public health experts are the so-called British,
South African and Brazilian variants, which appear to be more
contagious than others.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by
Michael Holden)
