AstraZeneca vaccine cuts hospital admissions by 94%

According to new research, one dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine cuts hospital admissions by 94% after four weeks of having the jab.

The new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine also reduces hospital admissions by up to 85% in the same period. The NHS have already given more than 17m people their first jab, and over 600,000 people have now had their second dose after 12 weeks.

Lead researcher Professor Aziz Sheikh, director of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said, “These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future.

“We now have national evidence across an entire country that vaccination provides protection against Covid-19 hospitalisations.”

Dr Jim McMenamin, national Covid-19 incident director at Public Health Scotland said, “These results are important as we move from expectation to firm evidence of benefit from vaccines.

“Across the Scottish population the results show a substantial effect on reducing the risk of admission to hospital from a single dose of vaccine.

“For anyone offered the vaccine I encourage them to get vaccinated.”