Nov 30 Reuters -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it was evaluating the effectiveness of authorized COVID 19 vaccines against the Omicron coronaviruses variant and expects to have more information in the next few weeks.
Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement that the agency is evaluating the vaccines to see if and how well they work against the variant first detected in South Africa.
She said if the review shows a modification to the current vaccines is needed, the agency and companies will work together to develop and test such a modification.
The new variant has sparked concerns around the world that it could resist vaccines and prolong the nearly two-year old COVID 19 pandemic.
The U.S. health regulatory agency maintained that vaccines are highly effective at preventing COVID 19 and serious clinical outcomes associated with the infection and urged people to get vaccinated.
The FDA is evaluating the potential impact of the variant on the currently available diagnostics and therapeutics. It said that a preliminary review showed that high volume PCR and antigen tests, widely used in the United States, have a low likelihood of being impacted by Omicron.