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The variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa could cut the effectiveness of vaccines in half, the health secretary said.
Matt Hancock made the comment during a webinar with business leaders and travel agents on Tuesday.
First reported by Mail Online, a recording of the meeting was also made available to Sky News.
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In it, Hancock tells those on the call: “There is evidence in the public domain, although we are not sure about this data, so I would not say this in public, but that the South African variant reduces by about 50% the vaccine efficacy “.
The health secretary added: “We are testing that and we have some of the South African variant at Porton Down, and we are testing it.
“We have a clinical trial in South Africa to see that the AstraZeneca vaccine works.
“However, if we vaccinated the population, and then you got a new variant that eluded the vaccine, then we would be back where we started.”
When asked about Hancock’s comments at the Downing Street press conference on Friday, the government’s top scientific adviser said it was too early to know whether the South African variant was more resistant to COVID-19 vaccinations
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“We will find out how effective vaccines are against this,” said Sir Patrick Vallance.
“It is the case that the variants identified from both South Africa and Brazil have more differences in shape, which could mean that the antibodies recognize them differently.
“I think it is too early to know the effect that vaccination will have on people and it is worth remembering that the response of the vaccine is very, very high antibody levels, so they can overcome some of this.
“We don’t know, but there is obviously cause for concern.”
Sir Patrick said that according to figures from Public Health England, 44 people in the UK have the South African variant, with a maximum estimate of 71 people suffering from it.
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He also said that “there is no evidence that the South African or Brazilian variants” are more transmissible than those that already exist in the UK and therefore “are not expected to spread more rapidly or take over.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at the briefing that another variant, first identified in the UK before Christmas, can be more deadly than the original virus.
“There is some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson said.
But he added: “All current evidence continues to show that current vaccines are still effective against both the old variant of the coronavirus and this new one.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Welfare said: “The government is closely monitoring any new variant of concern, including those in South Africa, and will continue to take all necessary measures to protect the public.”
