Delta variant ‘DOUBLES risk of ending up in hospital but jabs give strong protection’
THE Delta Covid variant doubles the risk of ending up in hospital compared to the Kent strain, new data has found.
A double vaccine jab does give a strong protection against the variant first found in India, but it is not as effective.
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Researchers found the level of protection may be lower compared with the Alpha variant, first detected in Kent.
The Delta variant is the dominant form of Covid in the UK now.
A study carried out in Scotland found out of 19,543 community cases and 377 hospital admissions, 7,723 and 134 of those were infected with Delta.
As with other variants, people with underlying conditions were more at risk of being admitted to hospital, researchers said.
And while hospitalisations have increased, they have not soared at a similar trajectory seen at the end of September last year as the Kent variant took hold.
While vaccines were found to reduce the risk of being admitted to hospital, strong protective effects against the Delta variant were not seen until at least 28 days after the first vaccine dose, researchers found.
In Scottish community cases at least two weeks after the second dose, the Pfizer/BioNTech jab was found to provide 79 per cent protection against infection from the Delta variant, compared with 92 per cent against the Alpha variant.
While the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offered 60 per cent protection against infection with the Delta variant compared with 73 per cent for the Alpha variant.
Experts say this lower vaccine effect may reflect that it takes longer to develop immunity with the Oxford jab.
VARIANT FEARS
It comes after a report found one-third of patients who died of coronavirus after catching the Delta variant had received both Covid jabs.
A Public Health England (PHE) study said of the 42 people known to have died so far with the Indian variant in the UK, 12 were fully vaccinated.
The new variant, which has delayed June 21's "Freedom Day", is thought to be about 60 per cent more transmissible than the Kent mutation.
Professor Aziz Sheikh, director of the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute and EAVE II study lead, said: "Over a matter of weeks the Delta variant has become the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in Scotland.
"It is unfortunately associated with increased risk of hospitalisation from Covid-19.
"Whilst possibly not as effective as against other variants, two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines still offer substantial protection against the risk of infection and hospitalisation.
"It is therefore really important that, when offered second doses, people take these up, both to protect themselves, and to reduce household and community transmission."
Prof Sheikh told a press briefing that any delay in lockdown measures being relaxed, as Boris Johnson is expected to announce, will enable more people to get the greater protection that two vaccine doses offer.
He said: "If there is a delay, I think that will give us the opportunity to widen coverage, which is incredibly important for those who at the moment have only got one dose.
"It will give the opportunity to increase the proportion of the population with two doses and then what we want is a period of time where people can actually maximise their immune responses.
"I think any sort of increase in the window of opportunity before lockdown measures are completely brought to an end, will be helpful, because that will help us to control community transmission.
"So, overall, I'd be very supportive of any delays that might be announced."
The researchers said the results had been passed on to Sage and scientists advising the Government about the relaxation of measures on June 21.
Referring to the study findings, Dr Jim McMenamin, Covid-19 National Incident Director for Public Health Scotland said: "These results provide early encouragement that two doses of either Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines significantly reduce the risk of infection against both the Alpha or new Delta variants."
The findings are published as a research letter in The Lancet. The researchers say to increase confidence in these early findings, the study should be repeated in other countries.
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Professor Chris Robertson, Strathclyde University, said "It is important to recognise that these are preliminary results using rapidly accessible data.
"A fuller understanding will come when the results presented here are combined with similar analyses from other data sets in the UK."
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The team warned due to the observational nature of the study, data about vaccine effectiveness should be interpreted with caution and it is not possible to make a direct comparison between both vaccines.
The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, UK Research and Innovation Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund and Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), and was supported by the Scottish Government.
