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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56540729
Covid jab: One dose in care homes gives 'substantial' protection
Published 12 hours ago
A single dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine was effective at stopping 62% of coronavirus infections in care homes, a study has found.
A team at University College London (UCL) looked at data from 10,000 adults in England with an average age of 86.
The research also suggested those who did catch the virus after vaccination may be less infectious.
"Our data suggests that both vaccines are effective in frail, older adults," said UCL's Dr Maddie Shrotri.
The study analysed coronavirus test-result data for 10,412 long-term residents, all aged over 65, at 310 care homes.
Highly transmissible variant
The group had routine monthly PCR tests for the virus as well as further targeted tests if an outbreak was suspected.
Of the 36,352 tests carried out between December 2020 and mid-March, 1,335 came back positive for the disease.
By comparing those with the number of cases before vaccination, the researchers estimated both jabs were effective at preventing 56% of infections after four weeks, rising to 62% after five weeks.
The timing and scale of the protective effect was similar for both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
"Our findings show that a single dose has an effect that persists from four weeks to at least seven weeks after vaccination," said Dr Laura Shallcross, a public health medicine consultant at the Institute of Health Informatics at UCL.
"We can also infer that the vaccines protect against the highly transmissible UK variant, as this was prevalent during the study period."...
Covid jab: One dose in care homes gives 'substantial' protection
Published 12 hours ago
A single dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine was effective at stopping 62% of coronavirus infections in care homes, a study has found.
A team at University College London (UCL) looked at data from 10,000 adults in England with an average age of 86.
The research also suggested those who did catch the virus after vaccination may be less infectious.
"Our data suggests that both vaccines are effective in frail, older adults," said UCL's Dr Maddie Shrotri.
The study analysed coronavirus test-result data for 10,412 long-term residents, all aged over 65, at 310 care homes.
Highly transmissible variant
The group had routine monthly PCR tests for the virus as well as further targeted tests if an outbreak was suspected.
Of the 36,352 tests carried out between December 2020 and mid-March, 1,335 came back positive for the disease.
By comparing those with the number of cases before vaccination, the researchers estimated both jabs were effective at preventing 56% of infections after four weeks, rising to 62% after five weeks.
The timing and scale of the protective effect was similar for both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
"Our findings show that a single dose has an effect that persists from four weeks to at least seven weeks after vaccination," said Dr Laura Shallcross, a public health medicine consultant at the Institute of Health Informatics at UCL.
"We can also infer that the vaccines protect against the highly transmissible UK variant, as this was prevalent during the study period."...