By Sarah Keane • Published: 06 Mar 2021 • 11:31
Credit: Pixabay
MUTANT Covid strains are ‘very unlikely’ to disrupt summer plans in the UK
Top Covid experts have said that the mutant strains of coronavirus being discovered throughout the UK are ‘very unlikely’ to have a negative impact on the coming summer, with Head of the Covid-19 Genomics UK scientific body Professor Sharon Peacock claiming that she is ‘optimistic’ that Brits will be able to enjoy a normal summer. The professor added that the immensely successful vaccine rollout, along with new jabs being developed to tackle the variants, would allow the UK to ‘stay ahead’ of Covid.
She told the Times: ‘New variants are very unlikely to send us back to square one. I’m very optimistic that the vaccines will be rolled out, that they’ll be effective, and that we’ll be in a better place by the summer and autumn.
‘I think we’ve got the capabilities to stay ahead by adapting vaccines, and so I’m an optimist.’
In order for the Prime Minister’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown to continue as planned, the country needs to stay on top of the virus mutations, as well as keeping infections, deaths and hospitalisations down. The South African and Brazilian strains are not only thought to be more transmissible, there is research to suggest they may also be resistant to the traditional vaccines. For this reason, many of the big companies are currently tweaking their jabs for use against the mutations.
Professor Peacock added: ‘There’s no reason for being complacent. I think we have to take them seriously and try to control them as much as possible, but I think it’s actually quite difficult to therefore predict that what you’ve seen in South Africa or Manaus is going to be related to the UK.’
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Former teacher and health services manager with a Degree in English, Sarah moved to Spain from Southern Ireland with her husband, who runs his own car rental business, in 2019. She is now enjoying a completely different pace and quality of life on the Costa Blanca South, with wonderful Spanish and expat friends in Cabo Roig. Sarah began working with Euro Weekly News in 2020 and loves nothing more than bringing all the latest national and international news to her local community.
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