COVID vaccines possibly less effective against Indian variant -German health official

FILE PHOTO: A person receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the Central Mosque in Ehrenfeld suburb, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Cologne, Germany, May 8, 2021. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - The currently available COVID-19 vaccines could be less effective against the coronavirus variant that was first found in India, the chief of Germany's public health agency said on Friday, referring to initial studies.

However, the level of knowledge was still very poor and he hoped for better data within two weeks, said Lother Wieler at a news conference.