After a major coronavirus pandemic that took millions of lives across the globe, a mutated version of the virus is leaving health experts worried. While the vaccine for the coronavirus vaccine has been released by Pfizer and Moderna, it cannot be said if it would also work on the new mutated version. To test it, the vaccine companies are testing if they would work against the new version of the coronavirus.
A statement from Moderna has assured that they would study the latest data and have expectations that the vaccine that induces immunity would be protective against the recent variants that are found in the United Kingdom. The company has assured that they would be conducting tests in the upcoming weeks and would confirm about their expectations. On the other hand Pfizer is now looking in to the data to see how the blood samples from people who are immunized with the vaccine would work and how well the vaccine would neutralize the latest strain in the United Kingdom.
This is not the first time the novel coronavirus has mutated. The assurance has come from the companies that their vaccines worked against the other variants of the virus. The statements from two of the major companies has hinted about the growing concern of the latest variant of coronavirus which has managed to rapidly spread across the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the experts are not able to opine regarding the importance of the mutation but still a number of countries including Canada and the United Kingdom have introduced strict restrictions in their respective countries.
So far the United States has not taken such an action, but now the White House is thinking of imposing restrictions of the travellers arriving from the UK. They might need to present a proof of a negative coronavirus test before they arrive in the United States. Experts have insisted that despite the mutation of the virus, what people need to do does not change, like regular washing of hands, social distancing measures and wearing of masks.
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