Vallance: Vaccines appear to be effective against UK variant

The coronavirus vaccines being used in Britain appear to be effective in treating against the UK variant of the virus, the government's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said Friday.

But two other variants - first detected in Brazil and South Africa - may "have certain features which means they might be less susceptible to vaccines", he said.

Britain has so far two approved two vaccines - the Pfizer/BioNTech and the Oxford/AstraZeneca shots.

Vallance was speaking at a news conference in Downing St alongside prime minister Boris Johnson.

Johnson cast doubt on whether Britain's coronavirus lockdown would be eased after 15 February, when the current restrictions are due to be reviewed.

"We really can't begin to consider unlocking until we are confident that the the vaccination program is working and when we are confident that we don't have new variants or changes in our understanding of the virus that might affect our calculations," he said.

Britain has the world's 5th biggest coronavirus death toll, reporting just under 96,000 deaths to date according to governmenmt figures.