Vaccines may be less effective against new coronavirus variant, UK says

Britain's health minister Sajid Javid said on Thursday that COVID-19 vaccines might be less effective against a newly identified variant of the coronavirus.

"What we do know is there's a significant number of mutations, perhaps double the number of mutations that we have seen in the Delta variant," Javid told broadcasters.

"And that would suggest that it may well be more transmissible and the current vaccines that we have may well be less effective." (Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)