Health bosses have assured the UK's vaccine stock is 'effective' against Covid-19 variants following trials.
Speaking at a 10 Downing Street press conference, Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins said three jabs have shown positive results against new strains of the virus.
And she anticipates all other vaccines will have a similar affect.
Dr Hopkins added that further testing was taking place involving the South African variant so that predictions could be made with “greater robustness".
She said: "We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death,” she said.
It has been revealed experts are seeking to urgently test 80,000 people in England for Covid-19, after it emerged the South African strain of the virus may have spread in some regions.
Health officials said 11 people had been identified over the last five or six days who have tested positive for the variant, but who have no links to travel.
This suggests there may pockets of spread in local communities of the new variant, with the possibility of further cases.
Experts from Public Health England (PHE), who have been sequencing around 5% to 10% of all positive cases looking for variants, are now hoping to break any chains of transmission. All but two areas involved single cases of the variant.
Mobile testing units and some home testing kits are being sent into eight postcode areas of London, the West Midlands, East of England, South East and the North West.
The areas are: Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.
People will be urged to agree to testing, whether they have symptoms or not.
The South African variant is thought to be as transmissible as the variant that was first identified in Kent but there is no evidence as yet that it causes more severe disease.
