The Australian’s Greg Sheridan says COVID-19 has “surprised us” at every turn and continues to be an “incredibly mixed and complicated picture”.

“I saw Mark Butler referring to the South African strain – which looks as though it can get through some vaccines – it’s too early to make too much of that,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News.

“But the ability of the virus to mutate in a way that defeats immunisation is a big worry for the people who study it”.

“Some countries which did very well early because they had had younger population profiles such as India, and parts of Africa, are now being ravaged by new strains which seem to infect younger people more”.

“The death rate has gone down in Britain and United States.”