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According to new analysis from Public Health England (PHE), two doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalisation from the Delta (B16172) variant.
These are comparable with vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation from the Alpha (B117) variant: 96 percent after two doses with Pfizer vaccine and 92 percent after two doses from AstraZeneca vaccines.
The new analysis included 14,019 cases of the Delta variant, 166 of whom were hospitalised between 12 April and 4 June, looking at emergency hospital admissions in England. The results have been posted as a preprint. Preprints are yet to be peer-reviewed.
"These hugely important findings confirm that the vaccines offer significant protection against hospitalisation from the Delta variant. The vaccines are the most important tool we have against COVID-19. Thousands of lives have already been saved because of them. It is absolutely vital to get both doses as soon as they are offered to you, to gain maximum protection against all existing and emerging variants," added Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at PHE.
The B16172 variant was first discovered in India and is one of three related strains. It was declared as a variant of global concern in May by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha strain identified in the UK.
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