Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by 70% when infected with the more contagious version of Omicron coronavirus.
That’s according to a new study by Discovery, South Africa’s largest health insurance company. Omicron was first detected in this African country, and it has the most data about it.
According to Discovery, protection is maintained in all age groups and in a number of chronic diseases, write Bloomberg.
At the same time, the effectiveness of two doses of the vaccine is expected to be low, according to the same study – 33%.
By comparison, in the mid-2020 wave, the same vaccine provided 80% protection against infection in studies and 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations in South Africa.
The results of 78 thousand test results in the country, in which Omicron is considered to have been detected, between November 15 and December 7, together with clinical and other data (211 thousand positive tests included in the study) were studied.
Data on the number of Omicron cases in this study were not confirmed by sequencing. At the same time, experts in South Africa believe that due to the peculiarities of the variant, it can be detected by PCR test.
The study shows that the risk of a patient being admitted to hospital is 29% in adults compared to the first wave of infections in mid-2020.
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