It has been found that the Oxford Jab offers limited protection against the South African variant of COVID-19. However, it is yet to be determined fully that whether the vaccine is effective against the severe disease caused by more transmissible variants.

A spokesperson for AstraZeneca said that it has not been properly determined whether the vaccine protects against severe cases of the disease caused by the mutated variant.

He also said that the new vaccine could be ready by the autumn against the mutated variant if needed.

Dr. Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said that if the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was less protective against mild disease but prevented severe disease this would "still be a pretty good outcome," reported BBC.

"I don't think we need to be too alarmed by [the reported findings] as yet but we do need to see the full study to work out what the implications really are," BBC quoted him.