70% decline in COVID cases among healthcare workers after first Pfizer shots: Study

LONDON: British health officials on Monday, February 22, said that there has been a drop of around 70 per cent in infections among healthcare workers who were administered with their first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech shot. According to a data analysis by Public Health England (PHE), the Pfizer provided high level of protection against infection and symptomatic disease with even a single dose. The analysis also said that hospitalization and death from COVID-19 will be reduced by more than 75 per cent in elderly people who have had their first dose.

Findings of the PHE study came from two different analysis conducted by their team – one is an ongoing analysis of cases among healthcare workers and the other is an assessment of testing data in people who are 80 years of age and over. The assessment on elderly people showed that one shot of the Pfizer vaccine is 57 per cent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 cases, and according to an early data, the second dose improves protection to more than 85 per cent against the infection.

Susan Hopkins, Strategic Response Director, PHE, said that overall, the nation is seeing a really strong effect in terms of reducing any infection, be it asymptomatic and symptomatic, and that the vaccine campaign is significantly reducing cases of COVID-19. An official statement from PHE said that hospitalisations and death rates have been falling in all age groups and the vaccine also provides protection against the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 found in Britain.

Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation, PHE, described the mentioned data as a strong evidence of the fact that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is efficiently stopping them from getting infected, and at the same time protecting COVID-19 positive cases against hospitalization and death. She said that these initial findings should be encouraging for Britain.