Confidence Vaccines Work on all Variants.
Covid-19: More confidence vaccines work on all variants – PM. There is “increasing confidence” that Covid-19 vaccines are effective against all variants, including the Indian one, Boris Johnson has said.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, he said fresh data had been reviewed earlier on Wednesday.
He also thanked people in Indian variant hotspots Bolton and Blackburn for getting a jab “in record numbers”.
The spread of the Indian variant has cast doubt on plans to ease the remaining restrictions in England next month.
On Tuesday, the prime minister said there was “nothing conclusive” in current data that meant England “would have to deviate from the roadmap” out of lockdown. This means legal limits on social contact could still end on 21 June.
However, he also said the situation with the Indian variant was being closely reviewed and ministers would share more in the next few days.
At PMQs, Mr Johnson also repeated his warning that people should not be holidaying in amber-list countries. This includes France, Spain and Greece. Visits to those countries should only be made in “extreme” circumstances such as a family illness, he said. If people ignore that advice they could face fines of up to £10,000, he said.
On Monday, the government lifted the ban on international travel.
In its place, a traffic light system has been brought in which divides destinations into three categories – green, amber and red, according to risk.
Mr Johnson said the government was “trying to move away from endlessly legislating for everything and to rely on guidance and asking people to do the right thing”.