Western Morning News

Next vaccine could be increasing­ly effective

- PRESS ASSOCIATIO­N REPORTERS wmnnewsdes­k@reachplc.com

THE boss of the firm behind the Oxford/AstraZenec­a Covid-19 vaccine has raised hopes it is more effective than first thought, amid the rapid spread of the UK virus strain across the globe.

AstraZenec­a chief Pascal Soriot told the Sunday Times he believed researcher­s had found the “winning formula” using two doses and promised to publish the results, as reports suggested the UK regulator could approve the jab within days.

The claim will come as some relief – even as Canada became the latest country to identify cases of the new highly infectious variant of coronaviru­s, which was first detected in the UK and has since spread to at least a dozen countries.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has praised vaccinatio­n efforts so far, telling the Mail on Sunday: “There will be tough days and months ahead, but there are reasons to look ahead to a brighter future and what 2021 promises.

“The early roll-out of vaccines – and the incredible work of our scientists and NHS – means we can now see light at the end of the tunnel with this pandemic.”

However, medical unions and Labour criticised the Government’s handling of the programme, which they said had not made enough progress in care homes.

Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Associatio­n, told the Sunday Mirror the Pfizer/BioNTech roll-out was going to be “difficult” but added: “It’s another case of the massive over-promise on something that just cannot be delivered. It’s constant.”

Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the newspaper there was a “race against time” to vaccinate enough people as he urged the Government to avoid what he said were “the same mistakes again” in being “too slow” to protect care home residents – a veiled reference to PPE and hospital discharges.

On Christmas Eve, the Department of Health and Social Care said that more than 600,000 people had received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but the roll-out in care homes has been limited to seven areas.

It added that larger care homes with 50 to 70 beds would be prioritise­d first, with around 2,900 care homes of this size in England.

The new variant of the virus, which was blamed for soaring rates across the country before the wider imposition of stricter Tier Four measures in swathes of England on Boxing Day, continues to drive high case rates, with another 34,693 reported on Saturday.

Cases of the variant strain have been confirmed across Europe, including in France, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Iceland, Switzerlan­d, Sweden and the Netherland­s, as well as around the globe in Australia, Canada, Japan and Lebanon.

As new lockdown measures came into force in England on Boxing Day, the annual sales rush looked to have suffered a sharp decline, with high streets and city centres in the worsthit areas deserted.

More than six million people in east and south-east England went into the highest level of restrictio­ns, which now affects 24 million people, representi­ng 43% of the population. Tier Four restrictio­ns include the closure of many shops.

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