A British study has found that two doses of the vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca were “highly effective” against variants first detected in India and the UK. AstraZeneca vaccine is given in India as Covishield.
The data from the UK Public Health England:
# The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose. It was 93% effective against the B.1.1.7 variant first found in Kent, England.
# The AstraZeneca vaccine was 60% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant compared to 66% effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 variant.
# B.1.617.2 is a subtype of the B.1.617 first found in Maharashtra and has since spread to the dominant strain in many countries.
A single dose was far less protective. Both vaccines were 33% effective against symptomatic disease from B.1.617, three weeks after the first dose compared to roughly 50% effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 variant.
“It’s clear how important the second dose is to secure the strongest possible protection against COVID-19 and its variants — and I urge everyone to book in their jab when offered,” said UK health secretary Matt Hancock.
Britain recently fast-tracked the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the vulnerable population, decreasing the interval from 12 to 8 week.
India recently increased the interval from 8 weeks to 12 to 16 weeks.
Also: Moderna has told Punjab it will supply vaccine doses only to national governments, and not individual states. Pfizer had earlier made a similar statement.
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