HEALTH Minister Vaughan Gething said it is not yet known whether people will need coronavirus booster jabs in the future, like for flu.

He was asked at today's Welsh Government briefing whether booster jabs could be needed to combat the South African variant of the virus, after a small study found the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab was not as effective against it.

So far in Wales 13 cases of the new South African variant have been found, and there are 147 cases in the UK.

“We said from some time out that the virus will mutate.

"So we know we’re going to need to reconsider what we do at various points in time.

“That may mean that in the future we need to have booster programmes or an annual programme as we do with flu every year.

“But we don't know that for certain yet.”

During the same briefing, Mr Gething said there were no plans to introduce coronavirus vaccine passports.

“It might make great headlines for some people but actually it's not very helpful in terms of where we are in the here-and-now.

“Driving down cases requires us to do the right thing together.

“I just think a conversation today about vaccine passports is an illusion and unhelpful distraction.”