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LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - British officials are currently
looking at which COVID-19 vaccines would offer the best booster
shot for vulnerable people later this year and no decisions have
been taken yet, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on
Wednesday.
Britain is quickly rolling out vaccines and has been the
second quickest country in the world to give a first COVID-19
shot to at least half its adult population.
The government is already assessing the possible need for a
third COVID-19 vaccine dose for the elderly and vulnerable, to
be given in the autumn, after all adults are given their initial
two-shot regime.
"The clinicians haven't yet made their decision when they
will need to boost, whether to give more immunity to the most
vulnerable, to increase the durability of the protection, or to
deal with a variant," Zahawi told Sky News.
Asked by the BBC about a Times newspaper report that
over-50s would be targeted with the booster shots, Zahawi
reiterated that no decisions had been taken.
Last week a Public Health England official said that any
booster programme would be led by the need to protect against
against variants, as high levels of protection offered by the
current shots looked unlikely to wane quickly.
In order to boost research into vaccines against new
variants, Britain said it would invest a further 30 million
pounds ($41.67 million) into laboratory facilities at Porton
Down.
When completed, the labs will be able to test 3,000 blood
samples a week for antibodies generated by vaccines.
Previously the government had committed 20 million pounds to
increase capacity to 1,500 weekly samples from 700 by January
2022.
Health minister Matt Hancock said that the investment would
"enable us to further future-proof the country from the threat
of new variants."
($1 = 0.7199 pounds)
(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Alistair Smout; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge)