Pfizer, Moderna testing their vaccines on new Covid variant

Pfizer and Moderna are now testing their coronavirus vaccines against the newly mutated version of the virus that's recently been found in the United Kingdom and other countries.

The two US vaccine developers issued statements in this regard, saying they will be conducting the tests in the coming weeks to see if those work against the new version of the virus, reports CNN.

In its statement, Moderna said, "Based on the data to date, we expect that the Moderna vaccine-induced immunity would be protective against the variants recently described in the UK; we will be performing additional tests in the coming weeks to confirm this expectation."

Pfizer said it is now generating data on how well blood samples from people immunized with its vaccine may be able to neutralize the new strain from the UK.

The novel coronavirus has mutated before, and both companies say they've found that their vaccines worked against other variations of the virus.

The statements from the two companies reflect the increasing global concern about a new variant of the novel coronavirus that has rapidly spread through the UK.

Experts are unsure of the importance of this mutation, yet a number of countries, including Canada, have imposed restrictions on travelers from the UK.

The United States has not done so, but the White House is considering requiring travelers from the UK to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before arriving in the US, two administration officials told CNN on Monday.

The Moderna vaccine is now in some Americans' arms as Covid-19 cases in the US pass 18 million

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the UK variant "doesn't change what we need to do" in regards to staying protected.

"What's important for people to understand as this doesn't change what we need to do," he said. "We need to wear masks, wash hands, watch our distances and wait on gatherings, and we need to get vaccines, get vaccinated when those become available to us."

Variant or not, the US has failed to limit the spread of Covid-19 as is. The winter solstice on Monday marked the darkest day of the year and provided a tidy metaphor for this period of the pandemic. The US reported about 191,000 new Covid-19 cases and 1,700 new deaths on Monday as more than 115,000 people were hospitalized with the virus, a record high.

The outbreaks are also not confined to any one region, as in earlier in the pandemic. Adjusted for population, the states with the most new cases over the past week are Tennessee, California and Rhode Island, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Yet just as the days are set to get longer and spring's renewal nears, so too is the promise of widespread vaccinations. More than 614,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and tens of millions more are expected in the coming months.