Britain ‘no longer in a pandemic’ as jab rollout slashes Covid infections by 90 per cent, experts say
BRITAIN is no longer in a Covid pandemic as data shows the jabs rollout has cut symptomatic infections by 90 per cent.
The virus has now dropped to the third biggest killer in England for the first time in six months as millions of Brits have now received their first and second jab doses.
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Data from the first large real-world study of the impact of vaccination shows jabs slash infection and are likely to cut transmission.
Just one dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines leads to a two-thirds drop in coronavirus cases and is 74 per cent effective against symptomatic infection.
And with two doses of Pfizer there was a 70 per cent reduction in all cases and a 90 per cent drop in symptomatic cases - the people who are most likely to transmit coronavirus to others.
It comes as:
- Dr Hilary tells GMB Covid jabs success is ‘beyond our wildest dreams’
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- Mourning families forced to endure funeral agony as ‘another 80,000 cremations and burials will fall under Covid curbs’
- Surge Covid testing deployed in Birmingham to try and stop spread of South African variant
- ‘World’s most mutated’ Covid strain with 34 mutations is found as fears grow super-variant may prolong pandemic
Prof Walker said she was “cautiously optimistic” that the vaccination programme could keep Covid under control.
She added: “Without vaccines, I don’t think getting close to zero is really feasible in the situation now in the UK where we’re effectively endemic, we’ve moved from a pandemic to an endemic situation.”
Professor Walker said falling cases over the last three months had been due to both the lockdown and vaccines.
“Long-term lockdown isn’t a viable solution so vaccines are clearly going to be the only way that we are going to have a chance to control this," she said.
“But I think the challenge is that, as demonstrated in India, in Canada and Brazil, the virus is very good at throwing us curveballs.
“And so I think we’re always looking at one small step away from potential for things to go wrong again.”
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So far 33.1 million Brits have had a first dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech, the Oxford/AstraZeneca or the Moderna jabs - with more than 10.7 million having had a second.
It was also revealed this week that a single dose of a Covid jab slashes hospitalisation risk in elderly Brits by as much as 98 per cent.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Vaccines work and today’s findings from the ONS and Oxford University provide further evidence that both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are having a significant impact on reducing infections across the UK.”
Health minister Lord Bethell added: "These real-world findings are extremely promising and show our historic vaccination programme is having a significant impact across the UK by reducing infections among people of all ages, including those with underlying health conditions.”
While jabs have helped lower infection rates Sir Jeremey Farrah of the Wellcome Institue this morning said the pandemic is continuing across the world.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "This can't give us a false sense of security, the pandemic will reverberate around the world until we can bring it to a stop."
We’re effectively endemic, we’ve moved from a pandemic to an endemic situation.
Professor Sarah Walker
Official data from the ONS revealed that Covid was not the leading cause of death in England and Wales in March for the first time since October.
The rollout of jabs and the success of the third national lockdown has meant that Brits are currently allowed to go to the pub outdoors, visit non-essential shops and hit the gym.
In October, a tier system was in place to control infections, which was later replaced with the third lockdown after the Kent variant spread across the country.
ONS data shows that in March Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death, accounting for 9.2 per cent of all fatalities registered in England and 6.3 per cent in Wales.
The virus was the leading cause of death each month from November to February.
The leading cause of death in March was dementia and Alzheimer's disease in England, accounting for 10.1 per cent of all deaths registered that month.
In Wales, ischaemic heart disease was the leading cause of death in March, accounting for 11.8 per cent of all fatalities.
The figures show that in England, six of the 10 leading causes of death were significantly lower than the five year average.
Conditions such as bowel cancers had similar rates to the averages seen across 2015-2019.
The report stated: "In particular, the mortality rate for deaths with an underlying cause of influenza and pneumonia was 57.1% lower in March 2021 than the five-year average for March."
The data also shows that between August 2020 and January 2021 in England and Wales deaths increased in the over 75s and that in England, they also increased in people under 75.
But the report highlights that rates in England have now significantly decreased in both age groups.
Data from the ZOE Symptom Tracker app released today also shows that cases are falling.
On average there are currently 1,165 new symptomatic cases of Covid-19 each day in the UK, compared to 1,601 a week ago.
Study lead, professor Tim Spector said: "Rates are down 28% again this week and hopefully we’ll drop below the milestone of 1,000 cases in the next few days towards our record low last year in August.
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";The ONS survey is also now showing downward trends."
He added that the vaccination programme as well as social distancing measures has meant that variants such as the South African strain - that had been detected in London have been contained.
