UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “new, very early data” from Oxford University gives “a degree of confidence” that vaccines work against the Covid-19 variant first spotted in India.
Hancock told Sky News on Sunday that variant, called B.1.617.2, was now the dominant strain of coronavirus some parts of the UK and “spreads very fast.”
Despite concerns about the variant, lockdown restrictions across England, Scotland and Wales are due to be relaxed from Monday.
“Information we have thus far tells us our strategy remains on track,” Hancock said.
“The people who are ending up in hospital are largely people who are eligible for the vaccine but have not taken the vaccine.”
