UK studies: COVID-19 vaccine remarkably decreases hospitalizations

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• New studies in the UK showed that the COVID-19 vaccine roll out has significantly helped in mitigating the hospitalization rates in the country.
• Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s vaccine aided in preventing the virus transmission.
• The studies were released as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his plans to ease restrictions across the nation.

In the UK, two studies published on Monday revealed that the inoculation schemes of COVID-19 vaccines were essentially helping in the significant decrease in hospitalizations.

Per Scotland-based research, results showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine minimized hospitalizations by around 85 percent in four weeks after receiving the first dose. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, meanwhile, reduced admissions by up to 94 percent.

In England, a health care study’s initial findings claimed that the Pfizer vaccine lowered the risk of contracting the virus by up to 70 percent after the first dose, and would go up to 85 percent after the second dose.

“This new evidence shows that the jab protects you, and protects those around you,” said Matt Hancock, UK’s Health Secretary. “It is important that we see as much evidence as possible on the vaccine’s impact on protection and on transmission and we will continue to publish evidence as we gather it.”

According to Public Health England, the health-care workers’ study noted that the vaccine could aid in avoiding COVID-19 transmission “as you cannot spread the virus if you do not have infection.” 

The results came from every two weeks of COVID-19 testing which detects infections and the presence of symptoms.

Ultimately, hospitalizations and fatalities were minimized by more than 75 percent after the first dose of Pfizer vaccines, per Public Health England.

The group also noted that it was still assessing AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Early signs, though, noted that “it is providing good levels of protection from the first dose.”

The preliminary results were based on the side-by-side data of people who got the vaccine’s first dose versus those who were not yet vaccinated. The study was conducted from December 8 to February 15, as one out of every five Scottish have been inoculated with the first dose.

“These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future,” said University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute director and professor Aziz Sheikh. “We now have national evidence ━ across an entire country ━ that vaccination provides protection against COVID-19 hospitalizations.”

The Scotland research was a collaborative effort by the University of Edinburgh scientists, the University of Strathclyde and Public Health Scotland.

The studies came through with the announcement of less restricted lockdown plans of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Over 17.5 million have been given the first dose, comprising over 33 percent of the nation’s total adult population.

Source: CTV News