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Moderna said Monday it was speeding up work on a Covid-19 booster shot to protect against the recently discovered variant in South Africa.

The researchers said that the current coronavirus vaccine appears to work against the two highly communicable strains found in the UK and South Africa, although it may be less effective against the latter.

The two-dose vaccine produced an antibody response against several variants, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, which were first identified in the UK and South Africa, respectively. This was the result of a Moderna study carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The vaccine produced a weaker immune response against the South African tribe, but the antibodies remained above levels expected to protect against the virus, the company said, adding that the results may indicate a “potential risk of previous weight loss of immunity to the new “indicate B.1.351 strains.

“Out of caution and taking advantage of the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are bringing an ambitious variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa to the clinic in order to determine whether it is more effective to increase the titre against it.” these and possibly future variants, “said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in a statement.

Moderna shares rose nearly 4% in premarket trading after the announcement.

Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, said he was glad Moderna is preparing for the possibility that the virus could mutate enough to evade the protection of current vaccines.

“This is not yet a problem,” said Offit, also a member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products. “Prepare for it. Sequencing these viruses. Be ready in case a variant appears that is resistance to the vaccine.”

On Thursday, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, new data showed that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Some early results posted on the bioRxiv preprint server indicate that the South African variant can evade the antibodies of some coronavirus treatments.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna’s vaccine for people aged 18 and over in December.

Moderna’s vaccine, like Pfizer’s, uses messenger RNA or mRNA technology. It’s a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to trigger an immune response. Late-stage clinical trial data released in November shows that Moderna Covid’s vaccine is more than 94% effective at preventing, safe and appearing to ward off serious illness. For maximum effectiveness, the vaccine requires two doses four weeks apart.

Bancel told CNBC that Moderna’s vaccine will protect against the South African tribe in the short term, but the company doesn’t know how long that protection could last.

“What is currently unknown is what will happen in six months, twelve months, especially in the elderly because, as you know, they have weaker immune systems,” he said during an interview with Squawk Box. “Because of this unknown … we decided, out of caution, to bring a new vaccine to the clinic.”

“We cannot lag behind. We cannot fall behind this virus,” he said, adding that the virus “will continue to mutate”.

–CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.

Volunteers in protective suits disinfect in a residential area of ​​Tonghua, China on January 24, 2021.

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BEIJING – A small Chinese town’s rush to control coronavirus has left some residents without food and some officials without work.

The fallout shows the extreme lengths to which the local Chinese authorities will attempt to contain the coronavirus. While the number of new cases in China this year is far below those in other countries, the strict preventive measures can quickly lead to major disruptions in work and daily life.

After a spike in Covid-19 cases in mid-January, the city of Tonghua, about a 10-hour drive northeast of Beijing, announced on Wednesday that no one could leave the city. Authorities added that all of the apartment complexes were essentially locked.

The folks who stuck home and had little time to get groceries turned to smartphone-based delivery apps, but many complained online that they couldn’t get their orders, according to the posts on Weibo, China’s version from Twitter.

On Saturday, the Communist Party’s local Disciplinary and Inspection Commission fired three officials for their poor performance in monitoring the pandemic situation, state media said. Eleven other officers received severe warnings, the report said.

On Sunday, Tonghua City apologized to its 500,000 residents for the “untimely” delivery of daily necessities and general inconvenience. The city added there was a severe labor shortage but sufficient food.

More than 11,000 people left mostly angry comments in a national state media post, apologizing for Weibo. Some users described how they or neighbors were starving and not receiving their orders for three or four days.

Many user comments found that Eleme, an Alibaba-supported grocery delivery app, cannot be ordered. The company did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Nasdaq-listed Dada, a food company that saw growth spurt during the lockdown of the first coronavirus outbreak last year, said none of its two apps operate in the city of Tonghua.

Covid-19 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Chinese authorities closed more than half the country in February 2020, and the outbreak stalled domestically within weeks. Meanwhile, the virus accelerated its spread overseas in a global pandemic.

New domestic cases have emerged in China in the past two months with cold winter weather and a sustained number of overseas visitors. Northeastern Jilin Province, where Tonghua City is located, is the third most severely affected region. In January alone, 273 new confirmed coronavirus cases were reported.

The Seychelles became the first nation to welcome vaccinated travelers from around the world this month, causing a stir among international travelers.

But there are reasons why some travelers – even vaccinated ones – want to wait.

A sudden increase in cases

Throughout 2020, Seychelles reported enviable low rates of Covid-19 infection. Except for a small spike in June, the beautiful Indian Ocean country typically had no cases most days last year.

Then came Christmas.

As of December 28th, the Seychelles saw double digit daily infections. So far, 1,033 Covid-19 cases and three deaths have been registered. That number is still low for a country of nearly 100,000 residents – by comparison, the U.S. had reported nearly 7,500 cumulative Covid cases per 100,000 residents on Jan. 24.

But more than half of the infections in the Seychelles – more than 500 cases – have been recorded in the past two weeks. Unlike previous cases, most of which were found among foreign seafarers and visitors, the virus is now circulating in the local population.

After maintaining low infection rates in 2020, Seychelles has seen some increases this year.

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Despite new restrictive measures, including shop closings and travel restrictions in late December, cases in the 115-island archipelago have continued to rise.

On January 14th, the Seychelles announced that they would be opened to vaccinated travelers from around the world. Effective immediately, the new policy would not require people with vaccinations to be quarantined on arrival or to have Covid-19 tests.

On January 22, the nation registered 210 cases, a new daily high.

CNBC Global Traveler could not reach the Seychelles Tourism Department for comment. The office closed on January 6 until further notice “to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” according to the department’s website.

Trust in herd immunity

The Seychelles government also announced that anyone taking a vaccinated or unvaccinated Covid-19 test may be able to enter as early as mid-March. The decision is based on the assumption that by then the Seychelles will have vaccinated nearly 75% of its adult population.

Seychelles began vaccinations this month for health workers, media outlets and political leaders, including Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan.

According to a press release from the Seychelles Ministry of Tourism, the country wants to be the first country in the world to use vaccinations “to achieve herd immunity”.

Possible vaccination problems

Vaccines are largely expected to help resume international travel this year, but there are unanswered questions that can make it problematic to rely on.

Studies have shown that some Covid vaccines are effective at preventing serious diseases, but it is not known whether they prevent the transmission of the coronavirus. That means vaccinated travelers may not get very sick themselves, but they may be able to pass Covid-19 on to others.

Regardless of this, vaccines have different levels of effectiveness. Separate studies of a vaccine made in China have produced highly conflicting data, the Brazilian authorities said this month.

The Seychelles have announced plans for future use of the Moderna vaccine. However, the injections given so far are being carried out by a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm.

Although some immunologists are approved for use in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, they have raised concerns about a lack of information about the test results for the vaccine.

In addition, not everyone in the Seychelles can be vaccinated right away. According to the Seychelles Ministry of Health, there are people under the age of 18 who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or People with a history of severe allergies, chronic illnesses and a weakened immune system should not take the Sinopharm vaccine.

Seychelles is expected to receive hundreds of thousands of vaccines from donations from private investors or countries for so-called “vaccine diplomacy”. The United Arab Emirates donated 50,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine last month. India gave 50,000 doses of its Covishield vaccine to Seychelles, according to the Hindustan Times.

For vaccinated travelers who want to travel

Vaccinated travelers wishing to travel to the Seychelles are required to demonstrate at least two weeks prior to arrival that they have taken a “full dose” of a vaccine – two doses if required, according to a press release from the Seychelles Tourism Board.

Travelers are required to present an “authentic certificate” of one of the “four vaccines currently under high media exposure” and a negative result from a Covid-19 test performed less than 72 hours prior to travel. Only Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test results are accepted.

Vaccinated travelers must also stay in hotels or guest houses that have been certified for so-called “Category 1” travelers. As of December 30, there were 532 such establishments, including the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles and Six Senses Zil Pasyon.

Others who can enter

Unvaccinated travelers can enter the Seychelles if they arrive by private jet or come from a list of 48 approved countries. These travelers must also receive a negative PCR test result prior to their arrival.

Unvaccinated travelers from Category 1 countries such as Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam can enter the Seychelles under test and quarantine requirements.

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Like vaccinated travelers, those from Category 1 countries arriving on commercial flights must stay in certified accommodations, but are not allowed to leave the hotel for 10 days. Those who stay longer than six days must do a PCR test.

Travelers from Category 2 countries are subject to the same requirements, but must select a hotel or guest house from a smaller list of approved accommodations. These countries, which the Seychelles describe as “important source market countries”, include Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UAE.

Great Britain was removed from the “Category 2” list at the end of December.

When vaccinated people travel

It’s impossible to know when vaccinated people will be comfortable traveling, but there are signs that some are ready to hit the road again.

The Vienna-based travel company TourRadar recorded an increase in “vaccination vacationers”.

“We have received a significant number of calls from the elderly telling us that they will be able to travel in July after receiving their vaccine,” said Vanessa Subramaniam, the company’s global director of customer support.

TourRadar reported that of its bookings in 2021, 52% are over 50 and 30% are over 60.

Deborah Birx, Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, speaks after a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC on June 26, 2020.

Joshua Roberts | Getty Images

Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump’s White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a CBS interview published Sunday that former President Donald Trump was reviewing “parallel” coronavirus pandemic records from someone within the administration.

“I’ve seen the President show off graphics that I’ve never done,” Birx told Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ Face The Nation. “Someone inside created a parallel set of data and graphs that were shown to the President.”

Birx, who announced her resignation as President Joe Biden last week, said she did not know the identity of the person who gave other information to the president. She added that there were Covid-19 deniers within the Trump administration.

“There were people who definitely thought this was a joke,” she said. “I think the information was confusing at first. I think because we weren’t talking about the spectrum of the disease, everyone interpreted what they knew.”

According to the Johns Hopkins University, more than 25 million people have been infected and at least 417,000 people have died in the United States since the pandemic began.

Birx said she had always considered resigning from the White House’s coronavirus task force and was censored by the Trump administration, but denied ever withholding information about the virus.

“When you have a pandemic where you rely on every American to change their behavior, communication is absolutely vital,” she said. “Every time a political leader made a statement that didn’t meet public health needs, our response got derailed. That’s why I took to the streets because I wasn’t censored along the way.”

Birx also said she was increasingly concerned about the Trump administration’s pandemic strategy, particularly right before the presidential election. At the start of the pandemic, Birx had approved of the government’s response, but later frustrated Trump when she emphasized the severity of the pandemic.

“My colleagues, whom I had known for decades – decades – in that one experience because I was in the White House, decided that I had become that political person even though they had known me forever,” said Birx. “I had to ask myself every morning, ‘Is there something I think I can do to respond to this pandemic?’ And that’s what I asked myself every evening. “