UK PM Johnson says vaccines against COVID variants are on the way

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson on Monday said he was confident that existing vaccines
would give some protection against coronavirus variants, adding
that work was underway by pharmaceutical companies to update
their shots.

Britain has agreed a supply deal for 50 million doses of
vaccines against new variants with Germany's CureVac, and
developers of other vaccines, such as the Oxford/AstraZeneca
shot, are also looking to redesign their vaccine to give more
specific protection against variants this year.

"We are confident that all our vaccines are effective in
reducing death and serious disease, and we have no reason to
doubt that they are effective in reducing death and serious
disease with the new variants as well," Johnson told parliament.

"Over the course of a few months we will see new vaccines
to defeat these vaccine-escaping variants."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Alistair Smout;
editing by James Davey)