2 shots of the Pfizer vaccine offer up to 70% protection against the Omicron COVID-19 variant, compared to 93% for the Delta variant.
This was disclosed in a report by South African Managed healthcare provider, Discovery Health on Tuesday, as reported by the Financial Times.
They also revealed that these are still early times in studying the virus, and will require careful follow up.
What they are saying
They stated that two doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine provides about 70% protection against being admitted to a hospital with the Omicron coronavirus variant, a first real-world analysis of protection against severe disease.
They added that it is lower than the 93% offered for the Delta variant, and also rates of severe disease had been lower during the early phase of the country’s Omicron wave than during the same period in previous surges.
This means that although infections might rise, hospitalization for severe diseases should be lower than rates compared to the early days of Covid.
Discovery Health warned that this is still early data and careful peer review is needed, “This is early data and requires careful follow-up,” they said.
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported last week that Pfizer and BioNTech have revealed that 3 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine provide a high level of protection against the new Omicron variant of the virus that causes coronavirus.
