Ann: VIRALEZE COVID-19 nasal spray to be ready for market Q1CY21, page-281

The spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants is accelerating in Europe, outpacing an already-slow vaccine rollout and forcing governments to extend and possibly tighten restrictions on civil society and businesses to prevent a new surge in infections before the end of the region’s winter.

A shortage of vaccines in the EU — only 4.8 per cent of Europeans have been vaccinated since late December — means the continent hasn’t even started the race against virus mutations that many experts say will define health policy in coming months and years.

The three variants now circulating in Europe are believed to be more easily transmitted, and potentially more dangerous, than the original pathogen that still makes up the majority of cases in Europe. There is also mounting evidence that some strains might be less susceptible to the vaccines currently authorised in the region, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

All three vaccines currently used in Europe have been found in studies to have a diminished efficacy against the new variants. South Africa even suspended vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot amid concerns it wouldn’t be effective against the local variant. The UK government, however, said it was confident that the British COVID-19 variant would be neutralised by existing vaccines.

But authorities must remain cautious because the more people get infected, the higher the likelihood is that new variants can emerge that could put even people who have been vaccinated at risk, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week.“No vaccination program is 100 per cent effective,” he said.