Rare A.30 COVID-19 Variant ‘Efficiently Evades’ Pfizer, AstraZeneca Vaccines: Study

Over 4,000 variants of the CCP virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus, have been identified across the globe. Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock

An old COVID-19 variant called A.30—which is exceedingly rare—“efficiently evades” antibodies induced by the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, according to a team of scientists in Germany.

Only five cases of the A.30 variant have been reported so far worldwide, according to the COVID-19 variant tracking network GISAID. Three of these were in Angola, and one case was detected in both the United Kingdom and Sweden.