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LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Data from the rollout of
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine shows one dose of the shot
results in 80% less risk of death from the disease, Public
Health England said on Monday.
It also said protection against death from the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rises from
approximately 80% after one dose to 97% after two doses in its
new analysis.
PHE said the study was the first on protection against
mortality from the AstraZeneca vaccine based on data from a real
world setting.
The study looked at new symptomatic cases of COVID-19
between December and April and people who died within 28 days of
their positive test by vaccination status.
People who had a single dose of AstraZeneca vaccine were 55%
protected against death, with a figure of 44% protection for a
single dose of Pfizer, compared to unvaccinated people.
"Combined with the protection vaccines offer against
becoming a case in the first place, this is equivalent to
approximately 80% protection against mortality in individuals
vaccinated with a single dose of either vaccine," PHE said in a
statement.
Protection against mortality from the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine improved to 69% for cases who had their second dose at
least a week before they tested positive. Combined with the
estimated protection from getting COVID-19 to start with, this
is equivalent to an estimated 97% protection, PHE said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to confirm further
easing of lockdown restrictions in England on Monday, helped in
part by the speed of the country's vaccine rollout.
In another dataset, PHE said that it was estimated that two
doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of
hospitalisation by 93% for the over 80s.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout
Editing by William Schomberg)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
