COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report - Week 21
As of 13 May 2021, it is estimated the Covid-19 vaccination programme has prevented 13,200 deaths in those ≥60 and 39,700 hospitalisations in those ≥65. These are likely to be underestimations as the indirect effects of the vaccination programme have not been incorporated.
Source:
Public Health England
SPS commentary:
The report includes the results of a study that estimated vaccine efficacy against the B.1.617.2 variant, the results of which have recently been announced by Public Health England. The study (5 April to 16 May) found the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines were 88% and 60% effective against symptomatic disease, respectively, after two doses and both were 33% effective after a single dose. PHE notes that the difference in effectiveness between the vaccines after 2 doses may be due to later rollout of the second doses of the AstraZeneca than for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Furthermore, data on antibody profiles show it takes longer to reach maximum effectiveness with the AstraZeneca vaccine.