‘Real-world’ UK knowledge reveals 70% decline in COVID infections after first Pfizer shot

England’s coronavirus vaccine marketing campaign is considerably lowering instances of COVID-19, with a drop of round 70% in infections amongst healthcare employees who’ve had a primary dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, British well being officers mentioned on Monday.
Data analysed by Public Health England (PHE) confirmed the Pfizer offered excessive ranges of safety in opposition to an infection and symptomatic illness from a single dose, and that hospitalisation and loss of life from COVID-19 can be decreased by extra 75% in aged individuals who have had a primary dose.
“Overall, we’re seeing a really strong effect to reducing any infection, asymptomatic and symptomatic,” PHE’s strategic response director Susan Hopkins advised a media briefing.

PHE’s head of immunisation Mary Ramsay described the information as “strong evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is stopping people from getting infected, while also protecting cases against hospitalisation and death”.”We ought to be very inspired by these preliminary findings,” she mentioned.
PHE’s findings got here from two separate analyses – one is an ongoing examine in healthcare employees, and the second is an evaluation of testing knowledge in folks aged 80 and over.
Evidence from the aged group confirmed that one dose of the Pfizer shot is 57% efficient in opposition to symptomatic COVID-19 illness, PHE mentioned, and early knowledge recommend the second dose improves safety to greater than 85%.

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“Hospitalisation and deaths rates are falling in all age groups, but the oldest age groups are seeing the fastest decline since the peak in mid-January,” a PHE assertion mentioned.
The vaccine additionally gives safety in opposition to the so-called British variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it added. The PHE knowledge come as preliminary examine findings from Scotland on Monday additionally confirmed the vaccination drive there’s working, markedly lowering the chance of hospitalisation for COVID-19.

Scottish researchers mentioned these findings instructed that each the Pfizer and the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are extremely efficient in stopping extreme infections.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland and Alistair Smout, modifying by Guy Faulconbridge)