Chennai: Even just the first of the two-dose Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine can cut coronavirus transmissions by around 67 per cent and therefore have a ‘substantial effect’ on controlling the spread of the deadly virus, according to a new Oxford University study.
The UK government described this as good news for the world because the impact of Covid vaccines on transmission has been a crucial unknown in the fight against the pandemic.
“The data indicate that (the vaccine) may have a substantial impact on transmission by reducing the number of infected individuals in the population,” notes the report from the latest study.
The Oxford Vaccine Trial results, currently under review to be published by the The Lancet’, also found that up to a three-month interval between the two required doses of the jab proved an effective gap as protection against the deadly virus.
A single standard dose of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine which is also being produced in collaboration with the Serum Institute of India showed 76 per cent efficacy from day 22 to day 90 after the jab, which means protection is not reduced in the three months between the first and second dose.
“This news about the Oxford vaccine is absolutely superb. Two-third reduction in transmission, stronger protection from 12 week gap between doses and no hospitalisations. This vaccine works and works well,” said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“The really good news embedded in it is that it not just reduces hospitalisations there were no people in this part of the trial who are hospitalised with Covid after getting the Oxford jab but also it reduces the number of people who have Covid at all, even asymptomatically, by around two-thirds,” he said.
The study found that a single standard dose of the vaccine is 76 per cent effective at protecting from primary symptomatic Covid-19 for the first 90 days post vaccination, once the immune system has built this protection 22 days after the vaccination, with the protection showing little evidence of waning in this period.