Booster jab vital to keep immunity high, say experts

THE chance of testing positive for Covid after being double jabbed rises by nearly 60 per cent in the months after vaccination, according to experts who insisted that booster jabs were needed to keep immunity levels high.

Latest data from Imperial College’s React survey, which monitors community infection levels, found that the virus was detected in about one in 285 fully vaccinated people (0.35 per cent) in the three months that followed their second jab.

However, between three and six months after the jab, its prevalence rose to one in 181 (0.55 per cent) – a 57 per cent increase. The group’s risk of becoming infected was far lower than that of unvaccinated people, the data show: 1.76 per cent of that cohort were found to have the virus, or one in 56.

Prof Paul Elliott, director of the React study, said: “There’s some suggestion that, maybe, there is a higher rate of breakthrough infection after three months. It … shows [there is an] incentive for people to get their booster.”