BusinessLive reports that according to a real-world study by SA medical scheme administrator Discovery Health, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine reduced the risk of being hospitalised or dying from Covid-19 in SA by more than 90%.

It found that people who had received both shots of the two-dose jab had a 92% lower risk of hospitalisation and 94% lower risk of death from Covid-19 than those who had not been vaccinated, up to three months after immunisation. Even a single shot offered significant protection, reducing the risk of hospitalisation by 73% and the risk of death by 79% after 14 days. The local findings are consistent with a US study published in The Lancet in October, which found the effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine against hospitalisation remained high even at six months, at 93%. The findings emphasise the importance for SA of rapidly scaling up coverage. SA had by 3 November administered 22.8-million vaccine doses and fully immunised 31.7% of the adult population with either the two-dose Pfizer vaccine or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab. The government had hoped to vaccinate 70% of adults by the end of the year, but Discovery Health’s projections estimate it will reach only 52%.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive

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