The Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing severe coronavirus infection among people aged 70 years and above, according to a study.
The research, posted as a pre-print
and yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated the effect of both the COVID-19 vaccines
on laboratory confirmed symptomatic disease in individuals aged 70 years or
older in England.
The researchers, including those from
Public Health England (PHE), compared the rate of hospitalisation and deaths in
confirmed COVID-19 patients aged over 80 who were vaccinated more than 14 days
before testing positive, with unvaccinated cases.
Data suggests that in the over 80s, a
single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 per cent effective at preventing
hospitalisation, around 3 to 4 weeks after the jab, PHE said in a statement.
Evidence for the Pfizer vaccine
suggests that it leads to 83 per cent reduction in deaths from COVID-19, it
said.
The data also shows symptomatic
infections in over 70s decreased from around three weeks after one dose of both
vaccines.
"Vaccination with either a single
dose of Pfizer or Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a
significant reduction in symptomatic SARS-CoV2 positive cases in older adults
with even greater protection against severe disease," said the authors of
the study, adding both the vaccines show similar effects.
They said the protection was
maintained for the duration of over six weeks of follow-up, and there is a
clear effect of both the vaccines against the UK variant of concern.
Experts say the new analysis adds to
growing evidence that the vaccines are working, and are highly effective in
protecting people against severe illness, hospitalisation and death.
"This adds to growing evidence
showing that the vaccines are working to reduce infections and save
lives," Mary Ramsay, PHE Head of Immunisation, said in the statement.
"While there remains much more
data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that
vaccines are making a real difference," Ramsay said.
However, she cautioned that the
protection is not complete and it is not known yet how much these vaccines will
reduce the risk of someone passing the coronavirus onto others.
"Even if you have been
vaccinated, it is really important that you continue to act like you have the
virus, practise good hand hygiene and stay at home," Ramsay added.
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