UK health secretary said to be worried that vaccines may not be as effective against South African virus variant

ITV political editor, Robert Peston, elaborates from UK health secretary, Matt Hancock's speech earlier

Matt Hancock said that he was "incredibly worried" about the South African variant of the coronavirus but didn't go into much detail. It could easily be brushed aside as a worry of the unknown sort of thing, but there might be a bit more to that:

According to one of the government's scientific advisers, the reason for @MattHancock's "incredible worry" about the South African Covid-19 variant is that they are not as confident the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the UK's variant.

Just something to take note, as the virus situation continues to develop over the next few months. For now, vaccine optimism is encouraging but we will have to scrutinise the efficacy and timeline in due time - most likely in a few months from now.