mobile testing for areas in england with
new cases of the south african
coronavirus variant
is being expanded at the beginning of
the week surge testing began which
included door-to-door visits after cases
were not connected
to foreign travel today testing began in
parts of worcestershire bristol
and south gloucestershire after a small
number of cases were discovered there
well our health correspondent catherine
is here with us now and there are new
developments on this
tonight catherine yes the ft is
reporting some early data that the
oxford astrazeneca vaccine
doesn't appear to be protecting against
mild to moderate symptoms caused by the
south african variant
now it comes just a day after the
pharmaceutical company said
that the vaccine is effective at predict
presenting against the uk
variant there are some caveats though
this is
preliminary findings from a small study
of about 2 000 people in south africa
and it's not been peer reviewed
there's been no comment from astrazeneca
or oxford university on this study
but crucially it's being reported that
the vaccine is still
seems to be effective in preventing
deaths and hospital admissions now
yesterday the head
of astrazeneca said it wouldn't be
surprising if levels of protection dip
with the south africa varying given what
we've seen in early results from other
vaccines
developers are already working on
tweaking their vaccines to cope with new
emerging variants
it's something that already happens with
the flu jab and it may be in future
that we need to have a booster shot each
year okay captain thank you