Delta variant doubles risk of COVID hospitalisation - Scottish study

Grace Thomson receives receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from Paula McMahon, on the first day of the largest immunisation programme in the British history, at the Louisa Jordan Hospital, in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain December 8, 2020. Jeff J Mitchell/Pool via REUTERS

(Corrects typographical error in paragraph 4 to show number hospitalised with Delta variant was 134, not 1234)

LONDON (Reuters) -The Delta coronavirus variant doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the previously dominant variant in Britain, but two doses of vaccine still provide strong protection, a Scottish study found on Monday.

The study said early evidence suggested the protection from vaccines against the Delta variant, first identified in India, might be lower than the effectivessness against the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, southeast England.

Deputy charge nurse Katie McIntosh administers the first of two Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs, to Vivien McKay Clinical Nurse Manager at the Western General Hospital, on the first day of the largest immunisation programme in the British history, in Edinburgh, Scotland Britain December 8, 2020. Andrew Milligan/Pool via REUTERS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to delay the ending of COVID-19 restrictions in England on Monday, following a rapid rise in cases of the Delta variant, which is also more transmissible than the Alpha variant.

The study, published in a research letter in the Lancet, looked at 19,543 community cases and 377 hospitalisations among 5.4 million people in Scotland, 7,723 cases and 134 hospitalisations of which were found to have the Delta variant.

Chris Robertson, Professor of Public Health Epidemiology, University of Strathclyde, said that adjusting for age and comorbidities, the Delta variant roughly doubled the risk of hospitalisation, but vaccines still reduced that risk.

"If you test positive, then two doses of the vaccine or one dose for 28 days roughly reduces your risk of being admitted to hospital by 70%," he told reporters.

Two weeks after the second dose, Pfizer BioNTech's vaccine was found to have 79% protection against infection from the Delta variant, compared to 92% against the Alpha variant. For Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine, there was 60% protection against Delta compared with 73% for Alpha.

The researchers cautioned against using the data to compare the vaccines against each other due to differences in the cohorts which received each type of shot, and differences in how quickly immunity is developed with each shot.

They said two doses of vaccine provide much better protection than one dose against the Delta variant, and a delay to easing lockdown in England would help more people get second doses and for their immune responses to build up.

"I think any sort of increase in the window of opportunity before lockdown measures are completely brought to an end will be helpful," said Aziz Sheikh, Director of the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Nick Macfie)