Covid vaccines remain effective against rapidly spreading mutant strain

Current Covid-19 vaccines will remain effective against the rapidly spreading new strain of the virus, according to EU experts.

German health minister Jens Spahn told ZDF broadcaster that “based on all we know so far” the new strain “has no impact on vaccines”, which will remain “just as effective”. He said the information emerged after a meeting of EU experts on Sunday in Berlin.

In a statement, the French Government supported this claim, saying: “This genetic variant does not seem to imply, at this stage of knowledge, greater severity or resistance to the vaccine.”

Mr Spahn was referring in particular to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which the NHS began rolling out earlier this month. The jab has also been approved in the US and is about to receive approval from the European Medicines Agency.

It comes after Boris Johnson said on Saturday that the variant could be up to 70% more infectious than the main strain, but the French government said this “has not been proven at this stage.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said nine cases were detected in Denmark, while the Netherlands and Australia confirmed one each.

Italy said Sunday night that it had also detected a single case in a person returning from Britain.

Germany, which holds the rotating EU presidency, organized an urgent meeting of experts on Monday to discuss the bloc’s response to the new threat, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

Several EU countries have already 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.

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