Latest updates: scientists say E484K mutation in some cases is worrying because it could make the variant less susceptible to antibodies
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In the Commons Matt Hancock starts by repeating some of the latest figures about the vaccination programme he announced at the press conference last night. Some 9.2 million people have been vaccinated.
He says the government is confident of being able to vaccinate the people in the top four priority groups by mid-February.
That we find ourselves in this position is no accident … We’ve backed many verses, no matter where they’re from. And we’ve also built up our vaccine manufacturing capability here at home.
These are from ITV’s science editor Tom Clarke on how the Kent variant of coronavirus may be changing. (See 12pm.)
So it looks like there are 16 cases of the UK variant containing the E484K variant. 15 share a recent ancestor. 14 in England, 1 in Wales. But the mutation has also appeared separately in another Welsh sequence https://t.co/eBqPAjqvEb
Clear sign of how SARS-CoV-2 is able to evolve these mutations independently and supports idea that it can, in the right environment, evolve “towards” something akin to South Africa / Brazil variants
