Two doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine appear to have given 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation in South Africa in recent weeks, a major real-world study on the potential impact of Omicron shows.
A woman receives Pfizer vaccine jab from a healthcare worker in Katlehong, east of Johannesburg, South Africa Friday, 1 October 2021.Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appear to have given 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation in South Africa in recent weeks, a major real-world study on the potential impact of Omicron showed on Tuesday, as the country battles a spike in infections linked to the new variant.
The 78,000 results are not confirmed Omicron cases, meaning the study is not able to make conclusive findings about the variant labelled "of concern" by the World Health Organization. Based on analysis by Discovery's clinical research and actuarial teams, and in collaboration with South Africa's Medical Research Council , the study calculated that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech offered 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation compared with the unvaccinated during the recent surge in cases and 33 per cent protection against infection.
But Glenda Gray, SAMRC president, said it was important that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to be offering good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation as a highly transmissible new variant circulates.The analysis also shows protection against hospital admission is maintained across all ages, in people from 18 to 79 years, with slightly lower levels of protection for the elderly.
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