BORIS Johnson and UK Government scientists have mounted a staunch defence of the homemade Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine amid concerns it could be less effective against the South African variant.

The Prime Minister insisted he was “very confident” in the vaccines being used in the UK and stressed it was “important for people to bear in mind all of them are effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness and death, which is the most important thing”.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, played down the prospect of the South African mutation becoming the dominant strain across the UK and confirmed work was going on to produce new variant vaccines in the autumn.

At a Downing St press conference, he made clear the South African variant was currently only in “small numbers” in the UK and did not appear to have a “transmissibility advantage” over the Kent variant and so was unlikely to “overrun” it.

Prof Van-Tam stressed: “From that perspective, I don’t think this is something we should be concerned about right at this point in time…Stories and headlines around variant viruses and vaccines are a bit scary; I wish they weren’t.

“We are watching this…the watchword is vigilance. Behind the scenes for many weeks now, the focus of my work has been on thinking over the horizon and what preparations do we need to put in place to give us a long-term resilient vaccine-orientated solution to this problem and that includes variant vaccines for the autumn.”

The expert insisted it was important for people to take a jag if offered it now, to protect against the “clear and present danger” posed by the virus currently circulating in the UK, rather than wait for an updated vaccine that might be more effective against the South African variant which was only present in small numbers.

Prof Van-Tam suggested the aim was to move dealing with Covid-19 out of the hospital to the community, as with flu, where the most vulnerable people would be protected by vaccines. This, he explained, would mean the country could “open up a whole way of living normally, much more normally, again in the future”.

During a visit to a coronavirus test manufacturer in Derby, Mr Johnson did not rule out the possibility of the South African variant delaying the relaxation of lockdown restrictions but he had “no doubt that vaccines generally are going to offer a way out”.

At the press conference, Matt Hancock, England’s Health Secretary, referred to 147 cases of the South African variant with none having been reported in the last 48 hours.

However, experts warned it was “very possible” the strain was already quite widespread across the UK and the recorded numbers were likely to be the “tip of the iceberg” due to the fact they were the result of random checks on 5% to 10% of all positive tests.

Concerns about the efficacy of the Oxford jag grew after South Africa suspended its roll-out of the vaccine following a small study, of 2,000 people, suggested it offered only minimal protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant.

The study, due to the young age of participants, could not conclude whether the vaccine worked against severe disease.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson also insisted the country would be “relying very much on border controls” to protect against new strains, pointing out these would be “most effective” when infection rates were brought down.

His comments came as Downing Street admitted no formal contracts had yet been awarded to hotels for arrivals from “red list” countries to quarantine in with the policy due to be introduced in England on February 15.