Coronavirus: Vaccination

(asked on 3rd February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to study the efficacy of a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine beyond 21 days.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 18th March 2021

Public Health England (PHE) has been monitoring the effectiveness of the vaccines. Early data has shown that the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective in reducing COVID-19 infections among older people aged 70 years old and over. Since January, protection against symptomatic COVID-19 four weeks after the first dose ranged from 57-61% for one dose.

PHE has also undertaken their first analysis of the early effects of COVID-19 vaccination using routine testing and vaccination data across England. This data, published in a pre-print on 1 March 2021, provides early evidence that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is having a significant effect on the reduction of COVID-19 infection, hospitalisations and deaths in those over 70 years old. The Pfizer vaccine was shown as approximately 60-70% effective, rising to 85-90% after two doses. This analysis is available at the following link:

https://khub.net/documents/135939561/430986542/Early+effectiveness+of+COVID+vaccines.pdf/ffd7161c-b255-8e88-c2dc-88979fc2cc1b?t=1614617945615

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