BioNTech and Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine will likely offer strong protection against any severe disease from the new Omicron virus variant, BioNTech's chief executive told Reuters, as the firm weighs the need to upgrade its commonly used shot.

Lab tests are underway over the next two weeks to analyse the blood of people who had two or three doses of BioNTech's Comirnaty vaccine to see if antibodies found in that blood inactivate Omicron, shedding light on whether new vaccines are needed.

"We think it's likely that...