Novavax says its vaccine is 89.3% effective in United Kingdom trial

Public health officials in many countries have said that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that the new strains will undermine ongoing mass immunization campaigns.

It is also being said that this speeding was seen after the release of the results of the test, after the information about its first case of the South African version arrived in America.

As of Thursday, more than 48 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been distributed in the US, and over 21 million Americans have received at least one or more doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also gives some protection - though less - against the variant causing even more concern in South Africa, which scientists think may be capable of evading the vaccines now in use. "We are all in this together".

Viruses constantly mutate, and coronavirus variants are circulating around the globe, but scientists are primarily concerned with the emergence of three that researchers believe may spread more easily.

They said the virus mutations had only a small impact on the effectiveness of antibodies generated by the vaccine.

While some European countries do extensive genetic testing to detect these variants, the US has done very little of this detective work.

January has already become the country's deadliest month yet, nearly 80,000 USA deaths reported, and there are still a handful of days left. Neither of the people infected has travelled recently, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said Thursday. That version of the virus has popped up in more than a half-dozen countries.

The biotech company also announced results of its Phase 2b study conducted in South Africa. It since then has been found in at least 30 other countries.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

Moeti said that other interventions that are required to avert an implosion of infections and fatalities amid the discovery of new COVID-19 variants in Africa include enhanced testing, contact tracing, isolation and treatment.

"CDC recommends that people avoid travel at this time".