Two COVID shots effective against India variant - English health body

Created on 2022-03-07T20:19:15-06:00

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LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - A double dose of COVID-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain’s dominant strain, English health officials said on Saturday.

Britain's health minister said the data was groundbreaking and he was increasingly hopeful that the government would be able to lift more COVID restrictions next month.

A study by Public Health England found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose.

That compared with 93% effectiveness against the B.1.1.7 "Kent" strain which is Britain's dominant COVID variant.

Two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were 60% effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant compared with 66% effectiveness against the Kent variant, PHE said.