An early analysis of omicron and delta cases in the United Kingdom showed that the vaccines were less effective in stopping the new variant.
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However, the maintenance vaccine significantly increased protection to approximately 75%.
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The UK Health Security Agency said vaccines could still provide good protection against severe Covid-19 treatment that requires hospital treatment. Since the first appearance of the highly mutated form of omicron, there have been concerns that it will make vaccines less effective.
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The researchers analyzed data from 581 infections with the omicron strain and thousands of cases with the delta strain to calculate how effective the vaccines were against the new variant.
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This showed a dramatic decrease in the effectiveness of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the two doses of Pfizer.
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However, the third dose increased protection against Covid-19 to 70-75%.
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The UK Health Security Agency estimates that by mid-December, more than half of all Covid-19 cases in the country will be omicron-type, and if this increase continues, there will be more than one million infections by the end of the month.
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Dr Mary Ramsay, head of the immunization department at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “These early estimates are to be treated with caution, but indicate that there is a higher risk of developing the omicron strain a few months after the second vaccine. delta type. “
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She added that those who had not even received the first two doses of the vaccine should do so immediately, at least in some way to protect themselves against the serious complications and consequences of Covid-19.
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