Vaccines appear good for variant

Vaccines appear to prevent 95 per cent of infections with the Indian variant, real world data suggests, with no known cases of death among those fully vaccinated in the United Kingdom.

Ministers yesterday repeated pleas for all those eligible to get the jab, with the health secretary warning that many of those hospitalised in Britain with the variant had not had a vaccine.

He said that of 18 cases in Bolton hospitals – Britain’s worst hot spot – one person was fully vaccinated, although most were eligible.

While the UK has now recorded 1313 cases of the Indian variant, Matt Hancock said the government was not aware of anyone who had died with the variant after receiving two jabs.

It came as a study of 3235 vaccinated healthcare workers in

India given the AstraZeneca vaccine found just 85 reported symptoms of Covid, with just two ending up hospitalised.

Researchers said the observational study, by the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi, which recorded no deaths nor admissions to intensive care, strengthened the case for vaccination.

Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical director, said: ‘‘Our study demonstrated that 97.38 per cent of those vaccinated were protected from an infection and the hospitalisation rate was only 0.06 per cent.’’

The health secretary said the Indian variant was likely to become the dominant variant across the UK, and was already becoming so in parts of the North West, such as Bolton and Blackburn.

Latest figures show Bolton has 228.5 cases per 100,000 people, followed by Erewash in Derbyshire, on 163 cases per 100,000 people, Blackburn with Darwen on 111.6 per 100,000, Bedford on 105.6 per 100,000, and Moray in Scotland on 98.1 cases per 100,000.

Overall, uptake of vaccines in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen is lagging slightly behind that of the rest of Britain latest data shows. But far more significant differences in uptake are found at ward levels where the Covid rates are highest.

In parts of the towns where more than one in five are refusing the jab, Covid rates are three times as high as in the areas with high uptake, analysis shows.

It came as Hancock said early findings from UK trials gave him ‘‘increasing confidence’’ that vaccines were protecting against the new variants.

Sir John Bell, from the University of Oxford, which is carrying out the lab studies in Britain, said the data so far was ‘‘rather promising’’.

He told Times Radio that while the research suggested the new variants slightly reduced the ability to neutralise the virus, it was ‘‘not very great’’.

Last week the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies said it was ‘‘a realistic possibility’’ that the variant might be 50 per cent more transmissible than the Kent strain.

The warnings prompted the government’s advisers to alter the vaccine schedule, in order to protect all over-50s more quickly.

The gap between vaccines will be reduced from 12 to eight weeks, for all over-50s who are due to receive a second dose after May 25.

As a result, everyone above the age of 50 should have been offered their second vaccine by June 7 – a full two weeks before June 21, the date when lockdown could be fully eased.

On Saturday, the prime minister warned that the new variant could put the timing of this step at risk, with Hancock yesterday saying a decision would be taken on June 14.

‘‘Our study demonstrated that 97.38 per cent of those vaccinated were protected from an infection and the hospitalisation rate was only 0.06 per cent.’’

Dr Anupam Sibal Indraprastha Apollo Hospital