The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is likely to provide protection against the coronavirus variant first detected in the UK, researchers found, as scientists warned the daily death toll would continue to rise towards the end of the month.
The new study suggests the Pfizer jab can overcome a number of genetic changes in the virus after testing the vaccine against a synthetic virus with 10 mutations that are characteristic of the UK variant.
However, separate research has suggested that vaccines may be less effective against the new variant of coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.
Earlier, scientists warned daily deaths from coronavirus would continue to rise towards the end of the month, after the UK recorded the highest toll so far in the pandemic.
People who caught the virus in early January will be admitted to hospital around this week, and deaths from those cases will lead to further “record-breaking” days before peaking, warned Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, echoing remarks from Sage member Professor Andrew Hayward.
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