Research published in The Lancet suggests that vaccine protection against the Delta variant first identified in India could be lower than against the Alpha variant first identified in the UK.
The Delta coronavirus variant doubles the risk of hospitalization compared to the previously dominant variant in the UK, but two doses of vaccine still offer strong protection. to study has found.
The study said early evidence suggests that vaccine protection against the Delta variant, first identified in India, may be lower than the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, southeast of Kent. ‘England.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to delay on Monday the completion of COVID-19 restrictions in England, following a rapid rise in cases of the Delta variant, which is also more transmissible than the Alpha variant.
The study, published Monday in a research letter in The Lancet, examined 19,543 community cases and 377 hospitalizations among 5.4 million people in Scotland, of whom 7,723 cases and 1,234 hospitalizations found the Delta variant.
Chris Robertson, a professor of public health epidemiology at the University of Strathclyde, said that by adjusting for age and comorbidities, the Delta variant roughly doubled the risk of hospital admission, but vaccines still reduced that risk.
“If you test positive, two doses of the vaccine or one dose for 28 days will reduce the risk of hospitalization by about 70 percent,” he told reporters.
Two weeks after the second dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to have 79% protection against Delta variant infection, compared with 92% protection against Alpha variant.
For the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, there was 60% protection against Delta compared to 73% Alpha.
“The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine appeared to be less effective than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in those with the Delta variant of concern,” the authors wrote in The Lancet article.
However, they added: “Given the observational nature of these data, estimates of vaccine efficacy should be interpreted with caution.”
Facilitation of blocking
The scientists said two doses of vaccine provide much better protection than one dose against the Delta variant, and that a delay in facilitating the blockade in England would help more people get second doses and boost their immune responses.
“I think it will be useful to raise any kind of window of opportunity before the blockade measures are completely completed,” said Aziz Sheikh, director of the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said over the weekend that the government wanted to use the extra time to get millions of younger people to receive twice as many blows.
He said that while vaccines had weakened the link between infections and hospital admissions, they wanted to be sure it was “cut and broken.”
He said the prudent approach was necessary to ensure that the unblocking was “irreversible” and that they did not have to “re-enter and exit the measures”.
The latest government daily figures on Monday showed another increase in infections with 7,742 confirmed laboratory cases in the UK.