To date, almost 7.5 million people have received their first dose of an approved coronavirus vaccine in the UK. The vaccines have started being rolled out in the UK since the end of last year, and the Government is aiming to secure enough supplies to vaccinate the top four priority groups with one dose by mid-February.
How many coronavirus vaccines are there?
There are a number of vaccines still undergoing trials around the world, but only three have been approved for use in the UK so far.
In late 2020, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be approved for use in the UK.
The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine was next to be approved, followed by the Moderna vaccine in early 2021.
READ MORE: Heart attack symptoms: Major signs of the condition
The Novavax jab was found to be effective against the Kent Covid variant.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today that the results from the trial were “yet another great step forward for the UK”.
Professor Heath added: “I think the technology we have both with this vaccine, the Novavax technology, and the other vaccines, it is such that they can adapt quickly so we can expect to see, if required, new vaccines or bivalent vaccines, where two different strains are joined together in the one vaccine.
“And that now can be done at pace so that we can keep up with these variants should they prove to be difficult to prevent with the vaccine that we have at the moment.
“We’ve seen for the UK that the UK variant can be successfully prevented with this vaccine, which is great.
“Yes, the South African variant is more difficult and hopefully there will not be more variants but we may expect to see some as time goes on.”