A brand new research out of South Africa reveals that Pfizer’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine gives a excessive diploma of safety towards hospitalization from the fast-spreading omicron variant.
The true-world research, performed by the South African Medical Analysis Council and Discovery Well being, the nation’s largest personal medical health insurance administrator, was primarily based on greater than 211,000 optimistic COVID-19 check outcomes between November 15 to December 7, with about 78,000 believed to be brought on by omicron.
The research concluded that whereas the vaccine provided solely a 33% fee of safety towards an general an infection, it offered 70% safety towards hospitalization. It additionally concludes that whereas there was the next danger of reinfection throughout this present surge, the danger of hospitalization amongst adults was 29% decrease than throughout the preliminary wave. Pfizer developed the vaccine in collaboration with German-based BioNTech.
South Africa is experiencing a dramatic surge in new every day COVID-19 circumstances pushed by omicron, which was first introduced by the nation in November.
In a associated improvement, Pfizer introduced Tuesday {that a} new research of its experimental COVID-19 antiviral tablet confirms it’s extremely efficient in stopping extreme illness amongst high-risk adults that might result in hospitalizations and deaths, even towards the omicron variant.
The corporate says it discovered that the drug, dubbed Paxlovid, diminished the danger of hospitalization and demise by 89% if given inside three days of the onset of COVID-19 signs, and as a lot 88% if administered inside 5 days.
Pfizer has requested the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to authorize use of Paxlovid primarily based on outcomes from a preliminary research.
The FDA is anticipated to announce quickly whether or not to grant permission for medical doctors to make use of Paxlovid and a competing drug, molnupiravir, developed by Merck. Merck stated final month a scientific trial revealed molnupiravir diminished hospitalizations and deaths by solely 30% amongst high-risk adults.
The brand new developments come as well being authorities around the globe are warning that omicron may quickly surpass delta as essentially the most dominant variant of the coronavirus.
Denmark says omicron will set off 10,000 new infections by the tip of the week, in comparison with the present fee of 6,000 circumstances pushed solely by delta. The Norwegian Institute of Public Well being additionally warned Monday that omicron “will quickly dominate,” with new infections rising from 4,700 every day circumstances to a document 90,000 to 300,000 every day circumstances.
The brand new warnings come simply days after the World Well being Group warned that omicron poses a “very excessive” world danger as a result of its mutations could result in greater transmission. The U.N. well being company stated whereas the present vaccines are much less efficient towards omicron, early knowledge reveals it causes much less extreme signs than different variants.
In the meantime, China is reporting its second case of omicron an infection on its mainland. A 67-year-old man examined optimistic Monday, two weeks after arriving in Shanghai from abroad. Authorities say the person repeatedly examined adverse throughout his obligatory two-week resort quarantine earlier than flying to the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, the place he was spending one other week in self-isolation at his residence. He examined optimistic for the brand new variant after researchers performed genome sequencing.
The primary case of omicron on mainland China was an individual within the northern port metropolis of Tianjin who examined optimistic for the brand new variant after arriving from abroad on December 9. The person, who was proven to be asymptomatic, is now quarantined and present process therapy in a hospital.
The primary circumstances of omicron on mainland China come two years after COVID-19, the illness brought on by the coronavirus, was first detected within the central metropolis of Wuhan. China has since imposed a “zero-tolerance” technique, together with mass testing, snap lockdowns and in depth quarantines, as a way to forestall any additional outbreaks.
Some data for this report got here from the Related Press and Reuters.