According to the new data, vaccines work well against variants found in India

According to new data from the UK, two doses of BioNTech / Pfizer or Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines provide good protection against symptomatic infections according to new data from the UK, due to the minimal reduction in efficacy compared to the variant called Kent.

BioNTech / Pfizer jab offered 88 per cent protection against the B. 1,617.2 variant found in India, almost unnoticed from the 93 per cent given against the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in south-east England. According to Public Health England data.

Two doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine provided lower protection against both variants, 66 percent for B.1.1.7 percent and 60 percent for B. 1,617.2.

However, officials warned that it is likely to underestimate these numbers, indicating that the second dose of AstraZeneca owner would be shot later compared to the BioNTech / Pfizer shot, which meant the AZ cohort would be monitored for a shorter period of time.

The numbers will raise hopes for the UK government to end the country’s closure on June 21 as planned.

Other data have shown that the AZ vaccine needs several weeks to achieve maximum efficacy after the second dose, and as a result, its protective effect may not be fully captured in the new data.

The relative decrease in efficacy against the two 1,617.2 was similar in both vaccines: it was 6 percent for the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, and 10 percent for the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine.

Health and Welfare Secretary Matt Hancock has called the new evidence “pioneering”. Citing the number of people who have already received two doses of the vaccine, he added: “We are now confident that more than 20 million people (more than 3 in 1) have high protection against this new variant,” the number was growing by “hundreds of thousands” every day.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunization at Public Health England, said she and her colleagues hope the vaccinations are even more effective in preventing hospitalization and death.

The severity and transmissibility of the Indian variant will be key to whether Boris Johnson is able to fully reopen the country to meet its “roadmap”. Officials provide data to ministers on a daily basis and are in formal talks with Hancock and the prime minister to update them at least once a week as Johnson makes a final decision, insiders said.

The data released on Saturday provides more details The first figures seen by the Financial Times.

Evidence to date indicates that B. 1.617.2 has the ability to prevent vaccine immunity rather than B.1.351, a variant first identified in South Africa, according to public health officials.

Data from English hospitals showed that of the 2,889 B genetically confirmed cases, 104 of the 1,617.2 cases resulted in an emergency visit, of which 31 were spent overnight in hospital and 6 died. These records have not yet fully matched the status of vaccines, so the distribution of serious cases between vaccines and unvaccinated individuals is unknown.

An in-house PHE report published on Saturday showed continued evidence that B. 1.617.2 is more transmissible than B.1.1.7.

But models made by British scientists have shown that patterns of variant growth vary between different parts of the UK. A public health official said the variable proportions B.1.1.7 and B. 1,617.2 in London were a substitute for one variant without a general increase in numbers, but the variant first identified in other parts of England is growing relatively rapidly in India to achieve overall growth.

Dr. Robert Challen of the University of Exeter, who presented the Indian variant model to the scientific advisory group of the SAGE government, said it was difficult to reach a definitive conclusion on what was driving the growth of the variant. Larger house sizes may play a role, but “there could be other factors that are not controlled, such as poor ventilation or dense housing,” he added.