An observational study of 3,235 vaccinated healthcare workers based in India, who had been given the AstraZenecavaccine, found that only 85 reported symptoms of Covid while just two ended up being hospitalised, according to the research conducted by the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi.
Researchers said they believe the study, which recorded no deaths or admissions to intensive care, strengthened the case for vaccination, reported the Telegraph.
Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical director, said: “Our study demonstrated that 97.38 per cent of those vaccinated were protected from an infection and hospitalisation rate was only 0.06 per cent,” the paper added.
The study’s results came as UK ministers on Sunday repeated pleas for all those eligible to get the jab.
He said that of 18 cases in Bolton hospitals that just one person was fully vaccinated, although most were eligible.
Although the country has now recorded 1,313 cases of the Indian variant, Mr Hancock said the Government is not aware of anyone who had died with the variant after receiving two vaccine doses.
Oxford University, which is carrying out its own lab studies on the variant, said the data is preliminary and it is unable to share the research because it is not yet written up in a manuscript.
But Oxford’s Sir John Bell said the result of lab experiments investigating whether the vaccine neutralises the variant “looks okay.”
“It’s not perfect, but it’s not catastrophically bad,” he told Times Radio.
“There’s a slight reduction in the ability to neutralise the virus but it’s not very great and certainly not as great as you see with the South African variant… It’s rather close to the Brazilian version where the vaccine serum seems to be very effective in neutralising the virus,” he added.
