A double dose of Covid-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain's dominant strain, English health officials have said.

A study by Public Health England found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88 per cent effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose.

That compared with 93pc effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 “Kent” strain which is Britain's dominant Covid variant.

Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were 60pc effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant compared with 66pc effectiveness against the Kent variant, PHE said, according to Reuters.