A top expert behind the Oxford vaccine has urged Brits not to “obsess” about every new variant of Covid.
Professor Andrew Pollard said the South African and Brazilian variants can still be fought with new jabs in the future, even if the current vaccine proves less effective.
The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group argued more variants will emerge in the future - but in every case, scientists will be working to ensure vaccines can work against them.
It comes after six cases of the P.1 variant from Manaus, Brazil, were found in the UK.
The whereabouts of one of the carriers is unknown due to an incomplete test card.
Health officials fear the variant might spread more easily and/or be more resistant to the vaccine than previous forms of coronavirus, due to mutations it shares with the South African strain. Work is ongoing to establish whether this is the case.
There are also concerns it could be linked to a surge in infections in Manaus, which was previously thought to have reached herd immunity.
Prof Pollard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The nature of this virus is it will continue to throw up new mutations in time.
“And so to some extent we’ve got to start moving away from an obsession with each variant as it appears.
“But to try to rely on the excellent sequencing that’s being run nationally, to try to pick up new variants so new designs of vaccine can be made as and when they’re needed.”
He said the South African B.1.351 variant and Brazilian P.1 variant - both of which have been seen in the UK - are of the greatest concern at the moment.
But he added both are being studied carefully - including to test if a vaccine against one will work on the other.
Ministers have already predicted many Brits will need a “booster shot” of the vaccine after their first two doses, to guard against new variants this winter and lengthen immunity.
It comes after Prof Pollard hailed “stunning” data that showed the effectiveness of both the Oxford and Pfizer jabs.
In a PHE study, protection against developing symptomatic Covid-19 in the over-70s ranged between 57% and 61% for one dose of Pfizer and between 60% and 73% for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Over-80s who had been vaccinated with one dose of either jab had more than 80% protection against hospital admission, while the Pfizer jab was 85% effective at preventing death from Covid-19.
More data is being analysed on how the Oxford jab prevents death, while further figures for the over-70s are expected shortly.
Prof Pollard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the findings were "stunning", and this was for two reasons.
"First of all, because these data come from the hardest group to protect - those who are the frailest, the oldest adults in our population - and we're seeing an 80% reduction in hospitalisation in that group, which is stunning," he said.
"Second... both of the vaccines performed exactly the same, there was no daylight between them.
"We've had all this difficulty with communication, particularly around Europe, with uncertainty about the evidence, whereas in the UK we've been rolling out both vaccines in the confidence that they would both give high levels of protection.
"And that's absolutely what we've seen now in this real-world evidence - that whether you've had a Pfizer vaccine or the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, you have very high levels of protection."
