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A new investigation by the UK government suggests that two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are needed to provide strong protection against symptomatic infection of the coronavirus variant first identified in India, according to two people reported on the preliminary data.
Two doses of vaccine provided 81% protection against variant B.1.617.2 found in India and 87% against strain B.1.1.7 first identified in Kent, south-east England. , according to data from Public Health England that was presented at a meeting of the government advisory group for new and emerging respiratory virus threats (Nervtag).
Two people who attended the Nervtag meeting on Friday said the data showed that one dose offered 33% protection against symptomatic B.1.617.2 infection and 51% protection against B.1.1.7.
This suggests that a single shot offers 35% less protection against B.1.617.2 compared to B.1.1.7, according to the Financial Times analysis.
PHE figures group data from the BioNTech / Pfizer and Oxford / AstraZeneca strokes.
The rapid spread of B.1.617.2 in the pockets of England has called into question the country’s roadmap out of closure, and the next phase will take place on 21 June.
The PHE said: “Public Health scientists in England are evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines against Sars-Cov-2 variant B.1.617.2. We will publish the results of this evaluation in due course.”
New PHE research is likely to highlight the importance of taking two doses of Covid-19 vaccines to protect against B.1.617.2.
Last week, the government reduced the dose gap for people over the age of 50 from 12 weeks to eight, in an attempt to ensure that the most vulnerable in the UK receive full protection against the vaccine as quickly as possible. It has also introduced an increase in vaccinations at B.1.617.2 hotspots such as Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen.
A couple of models presented Friday at the Nervtag meeting by Neil Ferguson, a leading epidemiologist at Imperial College London, supported the new PHE research, with one suggesting that a single dose of vaccine was about 50% less effective against B.1.617.2 compared to B.1.1.7, and the other shows a 20 percent reduction.
The reduced efficacy figures compare favorably with estimates of variant B.1.351 first detected in South Africa, where a single dose of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine was found that offered only 17% protection against confirmed infection with Covid-19, increasing up to 75% after two doses.
Scientists in the UK have been competing to find out how much B.1.617.2 is more transmissible than other outstanding variants, especially B.1.1.7.
Models released last week by government advisers suggested it could be about 50% more transmissible than B.1.1.7, although last week’s new data implied that it might not be as high.
Government data released Friday from Bolton pointed to sustained protection against vaccines, with cases of Covid-19 at much lower levels among older people who have been prioritized for punctures than among younger adults.
According to the Office for National Statistics, overall coronavirus infections have risen slightly in the UK over the past week.
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