British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the new English variant of Covid-19 may be associated with a higher level of mortality although he said evidence showed that both vaccines being used in the country are effective against it. Johnson said that the impact of the new variant, which is already known to be more transmissable, was putting the health service under "intense pressure". However, he said that all the current evidence showed both vaccines remained effective against old and new variants. He said that once people reached hospital, there was no greater risk, but there were signs that people who had the UK variant were at more risk overall. "But it obviously is a concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as an increase in transmissibility."

Source: Otago Daily Times January 22, 2021 19:07 UTC