However, the delta variant is now making inroads across this region and the wider continent. A travelling threatД«eta is prevalentВ in the southern African region, with 4.2% of GISAID submissions from South Africa and 6.1% from Botswana being beta samples over the past four weeks. Thus, while beta seems to be able to escape immune protection offered by some current vaccines, future ones may be able to be given as booster shots to top up immunity where needed.

The company also has an additional modified version of this vaccine engineered specifically to target beta, which could be even stronger against it. However, these results have yet to be externally reviewed, and they donвЂ™t confirm whether the vaccine will actually prevent beta from causing disease in people вЂ“ only that the immunity generated works well against the virus. According to the company, in lab experiments the blood serum of vaccinated people worked well at neutralising the beta variant. This suggests that beta is somewhat better at evading immunity than all of the variants that have so far caused major disease in the UK.Д«ut another vaccine вЂ“ currently being developed by NovavaxВ вЂ“ looks like it could offer good protection against the beta variant too. A French studyВ estimates that two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine offers 77% protection against developing symptomatic COVID-19 when facing the beta variant, compared to 88% protection against the original form of the coronavirus, and 86% protection against the alpha variant.Дata from Public Health EnglandВ meanwhile estimates that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine also offer 88% protection against symptomatic COVID-19 when facing the delta variant. Other vaccines have also performed less well against the beta variant, though not quite as starkly as this. ItвЂ™s possible that it does offer such protection, but further research is needed. There werenвЂ™t any cases of severe COVID-19 in either the vaccinated or control groups, and so no conclusions can be drawn about the AstraZeneca vaccineвЂ™s ability to protect against severe disease. This is concerning вЂ“ though the study also had its limits. And when testing the ability of the vaccinated participantsвЂ™ antibodies to block viral infection, they found that this was significantly reduced or lost altogether for the beta variant compared to the original form of the coronavirus. This suggested that the vaccine offered only 10.4% protection against developing mild-to-moderate COVID-19 when facing the beta variant. This study looked at both the ability of two doses of the vaccine to prevent infection with the coronavirus and protect against mild-to-moderate COVID-19.ДЄmong people who had and hadnвЂ™t had the vaccine, the development of mild-to-moderate symptoms was approximately the same: 3.2% of placebo recipients and 2.6% of vaccine recipients developed symptoms. In one clinical trial, the variant was found to elude the protection provided by the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The particular worry with beta is that it might be able to get around peopleвЂ™s immunity вЂ“ it has shown at least some ability to evade the effects of COVID-19 vaccines. But the resurgence of this variant so close to British shores, in two countries that are popular holiday destinations for people from the UK, will be a concern for the government. For Spain, the total number of recorded beta cases on the database has nearly doubled during this period.ДЄcross the rest of Europe there have been barely any cases, with only two new British beta samples being logged over the past month (Spain has logged 378). On GISAIDВ вЂ“ a database that collates genetically sequenced COVID-19 samples from around the world вЂ“ 14.2% of Spanish submissions and 1.9% of French submissions over the past four weeks have been beta variant samples. The picture is different for France and Spain, however. First discovered in South Africa, it has since dispersed globally, but hasnвЂ™t yet gained a good foothold in the UK. But in parts of Europe there has also been a resurgence of an earlier variant of concern: beta (B1351). Most of the world, the UK included, is currently grappling with the delta variant of the coronavirus.

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