London: Britain has become the first country to authorise an updated coronavirus vaccine that directly targets the Omicron strain of the virus as it begins planning for a nationwide autumn booster campaign.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority — which was the first in the world to approve an original COVID-19 jab — has granted a conditional authorisation to the vaccine, made by Moderna, which targets both the original strain of the virus and Omicron BA.1.

The new vaccine will target both the original strain of the virus and Omicron.Credit:AP

The vaccine is authorised for use in people aged 18 or over, but UK health authorities plan to focus its booster program to prepare for rising cases over the winter on the over 50s and those at higher clinical risk of developing severe COVID-19.

The jab is a “bivalent” vaccine, targeting two different variants — the original virus that emerged in China’a Wuhan in late 2019 as well as Omicron. All the vaccines in use against COVID-19 are based on the original variant.

The latest estimates on COVID infections from August 5 showed a fall of 19 per cent on the previous week, with an estimated one in every 25 people infected. This was about 4 per cent of the population. The country’s vaccination program has so far reached nine in 10 people aged 12 and over with a first dose.

Agency chief executive Dame June Raine said the bivalent vaccine could be used for adult doses since it had met standards of quality, safety and effectiveness.

“The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK continue to provide important protection against the disease and save lives. What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” she said.

The approval of the new vaccine is based on clinical trial data that showed it elicited an eight-fold increase in antibodies to tackle the Omicron variant when given after three doses of the original shot, compared with pre-booster levels.

Dame June said an exploratory analysis of the bivalent vaccine had shown it generated a good immune response against the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

According to Moderna, trial participants who were given the booster had antibody levels against these subvariants that were 1.69 times higher than those given the original booster.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the UK government’s vaccine adviser, stressed that getting a booster before the winter season was more important than the type of shot received. It said that a shot tailored to BA.4/ 5 was unlikely to be approved and readily available by the autumn.

Moderna plans to deliver the first two-strain vaccines in the next two weeks because it began manufacturing months before the authorisation. All the remaining doses under its 29 million vaccine contract with the government will now be of the Omicron-targeted jab.

The Boston-based company has submitted data to regulators in Britain, the European Union, Australia and Canada in early July and expects those countries to authorise the vaccine in the coming weeks.

Moderna began working on Omicron-specific boosters late last year, after it became clear that the current shots were less effective against the soaring variant, which have fuelled the most recent COVID wave in the UK, and have caused infections, breakthrough reinfections, deaths and disruption around the world.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are also working on vaccines tailored to the Omicron variant, which data has shown significantly outperforms their previous shot. Their monovalent vaccine — with just the genetic code of Omicron — performed better than their two-strain jab.

The number of patients in UK hospitals with coronavirus continues to fall along with new admissions, according to the latest government figures. More than 200,000 certificates have been issued mentioning COVID-19 as a cause, while around 186,000 people have died within 28 days of testing positive.

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