New Austrazeneca/Oxford vaccine ready to tackle coronavirus variant 

The new Austrazeneca/Oxford vaccine that could tackle the latest widespread coronavirus variant could be ready by autumn, 
 
As one of the professors, Prof Andy Pollard from the developing team said, tweaking a vaccine was a relatively quick process and would only need small trials before roll-out, reports BBC. 

The comments came after results released by the team showed the first evidence the vaccine can reduce the chances of people catching and passing on the virus, which has always been uncertain.

The data, which has not yet been published or reviewed, showed vaccination with the Oxford-AZ jab could cut transmission by up to 67%.

This means the vaccine could significantly slow the spread of the virus, potentially allowing restrictions to be lifted more quickly, as well as protect people from becoming seriously ill and dying with Covid-19.
 
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the results were "absolutely superb" and showed vaccines are "the way out of this pandemic" but that the "on-going challenge" would be for vaccine manufacturers to keep up with what the virus is doing.
 
He expressed joy on the occasion of 10 million UK residents receiving their first dose of vaccine citing it as the  "hugely significant milestone". 
 
The mutation behind this variant - called E484K - has also been detected in some of the infections caused by UK strains. 
 
Prof Pollard said his team were already looking at updating the vaccine to make it more effective against the mutations that are being seen.

"I think the actual work on designing a new vaccine is very, very quick because it's essentially just switching out the genetic sequence for the spike protein.

"And then there's manufacturing to do and then a small scale study. So all of that can be completed in a very short period of time, and the autumn is really the timing for having new vaccines available for use," he said.