The new virus strain “has no impact on vaccines,” the German health minister said.
Berlin Germany:
European Union experts believe existing coronavirus vaccines are effective against the rapidly spreading new strain identified in Britain, Germany’s health minister said on Sunday.
“Based on all we know so far,” the new strain “has no impact on vaccines,” which are still “just as effective,” Jens Spahn told public broadcaster ZDF, citing “conversations between experts from the authorities. European “.
Spahn was referring especially to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is already being administered in countries like the US and the UK and is about to receive approval from the European Medicines Agency.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry said the EU expert meeting took place on Sunday and included representatives from Berlin’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for public health.
Several EU nations have banned air travel from Britain in response to the new strain, while France said it would block people arriving from the UK and all cargo unless unaccompanied.
Within Britain, London has announced stricter infection control measures affecting some parts of the country.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that the variant could be up to 70 percent more infectious than the main strain, according to preliminary data.
The World Health Organization said nine cases have been detected in Denmark and one in the Netherlands and Australia, while Italy said Sunday night that it had also detected a single case in a person returning from Britain.
Germany, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has organized a meeting of experts on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response to the new threat, the Health Ministry spokesman said.
The meeting will be held under the IPCR crisis response scheme of the European Council, which can be invoked for health, environmental or terrorist emergencies, among others.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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