More contagious mutant versions of Covid-19 CAN be beaten by a vaccine, new research suggests.

The scientific findings offer hope amid rising hospital admissions and deaths in the UK.

We explain the threat of the new variants – and why the breakthrough by researchers could be a game-changer – below.

Why are the new mutant Covid strains so worrying?

The novel coronavirus has mutated to produce two worrying new strains in recent months – one known as the UK variant, and another first recorded in South Africa.

The new variants of the virus are more contagious and spread more rapidly from person to person.

At first, the mutant versions were detected outnumbering the original Covid in the South East of England. They are now thought to be widespread across the UK.

Worries about the strains being harder to contain led to the third national lockdown in England, amid worrying figures showing 1 in 50 people had the virus between Christmas and New Year.

Daily deaths connected to the virus have since risen to above 1,000 per day and NHS hospitals are under more pressure than they were even during the peak of the first wave in 2020.

So we need all the help we can get in fighting the mutations of Covid.

Promising Pfizer vaccine news

Luckily, Friday (January 8) brings good and hopeful news.

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch have tested the new strains from the UK and South Africa, to see if the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine – the first to be approved and used – protects people against them.

The variants contain mutations including N501Y, an alteration in the spike protein of the virus, which is a target for vaccines.

In the new study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, blood samples were taken from 20 people who received the Pfizer vaccine.

Laboratory studies found that the samples had neutralising levels of antibodies which appeared to work against the new strains.

Pfizer has now tested 16 different mutations in the strains and none of them have had any significant impact on how the vaccine works.

However, further studies are planned on other mutations.

BELOW IMAGE: Similar research is yet to be released into the effectiveness of the Oxford vaccine against the new strains.

Salisbury Journal: Salvation: Hopefully, the rollout of the new vaccines - including the the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine - will give us a route out of the pandemic. PA Wire.

‘The results were very positive’

Sian Griffiths, who co-chaired the Hong Kong inquiry into the 2003 Sars outbreak, said the research was “good news”.

Professor Griffiths, an epidemiologist who also serves on an advisory board for Public Health England, told BBC Breakfast: “There’s some good news this morning – it’s not a peer-reviewed paper yet but it’s a report from Texas University where they took blood from patients who had been immunised and tested it against both the Kent and the South African strain and the results were very positive, meaning that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine does protect against those variants and also other variants.”

She said the UK’s “good genomics” had allowed scientists here to understand the new variant which pushed infections up in London and the South East of England.

She said: “Other countries are needing to do more work on which variant it is that’s pushing their numbers up, and what we need to do is have these amazing scientific advances that we’ve made through the pandemic apply to making sure that vaccines do cover variants and therefore provide protection.

“So the good news this morning is that it appears that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine does protect against the South Africa strain, so people can rest assured that that particular strain isn’t escaping the population.”