Just one dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine can provide 76% sustained protection from COVID-19 for up to three months and can cut transmission by nearly two-thirds, finds research.

The study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, also found that after the second dose, the efficiency of the vaccine is boosted up to 82.4%, suggesting that the dosing interval, and not the dosing level has a greater impact on the efficacy of the vaccine.

As the findings are still under review at the Lancet, these results are subject to further scrutiny in the piece.

In the meantime, Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, hailed the results as “absolutely superb”, calling the study "really encouraging" on Twitter.

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is the second vaccine along with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be rolled out in the UK.

Previous trial results of the Oxford vaccine published by the Lancet showed 70% efficiency. The new findings, if confirmed to be true, would make it the most effective vaccine choice of the ones that have cleared clinical trials.

“The efficacy still improves at the second dose so it is still important to get that to consolidate immune defences. The indication that virus carriage is reduced is also very encouraging,” said Deborah Dunn-Walters, professor of immunology at Southampton University and chair of the British Society for Immunology’s Covid-19 taskforce.

About the correlation between the doses and their effectiveness, Azra Ghani, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College London, suggests being cautious of the results as the trial was not designed to assess different dosing gaps or vaccine efficacy at one versus two doses.

While the researchers also hope to report data regarding the new variants in the coming days, the public health experts believe that the current vaccines will at the very least prevent severe illness if not be just as effective in preventing covid-19.

(Written with inputs from University of Oxford, and The Guardian)