AstraZeneca vaccine limited against South African variant

British drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Saturday the vaccine it has developed with the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of COVID-19, Reuters reports.

A study from South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University showed the vaccine had significantly reduced efficacy against the South African variant, according to a Financial Times report published earlier in the day.