"That reduction in transmission, as well as the fact there is no hospitalisations, the combination of that is very good news," Mr Hancock told Sky News on Wednesday.
"And it categorically supports the strategy we've been taking on having a 12-week gap between the doses." One of the lead researchers on the project, Dr Andrew Pollard from Oxford University, said Oxford scientists believe the vaccine will continue to offer protection against new variants ofDoses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca arrive at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, England.
Even if the virus adapts, "that doesn't mean that we won't still have protection against severe disease.'' "If we do need to update the vaccines, then it is actually a relatively straightforward process it only takes a matter of months, rather than the huge efforts that everyone went through last year to get the very large-scale trials run," he told the BBC.