By Ben Kerrigan-
There are considerations being made for second vaccine doses could be brought forward on top of the introduction of local restrictions to help tackle the Indian variant in the worst-affected areas, the UK government has said.
Minister Nadhim Zahawi said steps could also include vaccinating younger people in multi-generational households.
Ministers are also not ruling out imposing local restrictions where they consider it necessary to suppress a variant which resists existing vaccines .
Prof Hunter said there was “possibly” a case for targeting vaccines in certain areas – but jabs took two to three weeks to work. This would mean diverting doses from other areas, where the Indian variant could also soon be spreading.
The consideration comes after it was announced last week that the second dose of the vaccine will be delayed.
The new plans come after scientists have warned against the lifting of restrictions on 21 June is in doubt because of the Indian variant.
Meanwhile, a new study which examined looked 175 people aged between 80 and 99, found that the Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine generates antibody responses three-and-a-half times larger in older people when a second dose is delayed to 12 weeks after the first.
The study released on Friday is the first to directly compare immune responses of the Pfizer shot from the three-week dosing interval tested in clinical trials, and the extended 12-week interval that British officials recommend in order to give more vulnerable people at least some protection quickly.
After Britain moved to extend the interval between doses, Pfizer and vaccine partner BioNTech said there was no data to back up the move. However, Pfizer has said that public health considerations outside of the clinical trials might be taken into consideration.
“Our study demonstrates that peak antibody responses after the second Pfizer vaccine are markedly enhanced in older people when this is delayed to 12 weeks,” Helen Parry, an author of the study based at the University of Birmingham, said.
Britain began rolling out Pfizer’s vaccine before changing dosing policy, meaning a small number of people who got the shot early received the second shot three weeks later.
The study, yet to bee peer-reviewed, looked at 175 people aged between 80 and 99, and found that extending the second dose interval to 12 weeks increased the peak antibody response 3.5-fold compared to those who had it at three weeks.
It found that cell responses were higher in the group with a 3 week interval between doses, and the authors warned against drawing conclusions on how protected individuals were based on which dosing schedule they received.
Along with data showing good protection against hospitalisation and death from just one shot of Pfizer vaccine, Public Health England said the study was further supportive evidence in favour of Britain’s approach.
“The approach taken in the UK for delaying that second dose has really paid off,” Gayatri Amirthalingam, Consultant Epidemiologist at Public Health England, told reporters
Cases in the UK have more than doubled to 1,313, Public Health England said.
Prof Paul Hunter, who sits on a number of Covid advisory committees for the World Health Organization, said current figures were around two weeks out of date and would now be higher.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the Indian variant was now in most regions of the UK, with the possible exception of Yorkshire and Humber and north-east England.
The Department of Health and Social Care said there was “no firm evidence yet to show this variant has any greater impact on severity of disease or evades the vaccine”.
Prof Hunter said there was “possibly” a case for targeting vaccines in certain areas – but jabs took two to three weeks to work. This would mean diverting doses from other areas, where the Indian variant could also soon be spreading.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said the Indian variant was spreading in younger, unvaccinated people, adding that if cases increased so would hospital admissions, putting pressure on the NHS.
Mr Zahawi said easing restrictions on 21 June depended on the government’s four tests being met – including that vaccines continue to be effective and the risks are not fundamentally changed by new variants.