New approach not needed for South African Covid strain

Public Health awaiting peer review of study

The Isle of Man will not change its vaccination programme despite concerns about the South African variant of Covid-19.

It’s after reports suggest the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine may only offer limited protection from a mild to moderate strain of the new variant.

Public Health says the study – which only had 2,000 participants with an average age of 31 - still requires peer review.

Until that happens it says the current position is that the jab does protect against the predominant Covid variants currently circulating so there is ‘no reason to change’.