A "groundbreaking" study has shown that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs are almost as effective against symptomatic disease from the B1617.2 strain of coronavirus as they are against the Kent variant after the second dose.
A study by Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant two weeks after the second dose, compared with 93% effectiveness against the Kent strain.
Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca jab was 60% effective, compared with 66% against the Kent variant.
Nearly all parts of Wales now have cases of the Indian variant of concern, with 25 cases reported so far. It's thought the B.1.617 strain could be as much as 50% more transmissible than the Kent strain.
Dr Giri Shankar, from Public Health Wales, said it still remains to be seen whether the variant progresses to "established community transmission", but said it was likely.
The PHE study took place between April 5 and May 16, starting some time before India was added to the UK’s red list of countries on April 23. While it is not exactly known how the variant made it to the UK, PHE data has revealed that at least 122 people brought the Indian variant to Britain from New Dehli and Mumbai between late March and the end of April.
In England alone, there have been at least 2,889 cases of the Indian variant recorded since February 1 this year, new data from PHE has shown. Of those, 104 cases resulted in a visit to a hospital emergency department, 31 required an overnight hospital admission and six resulted in a death.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has described the outcome from the PHE study as "ground breaking" and said the new evidence proved "just how valuable our Covid-19 vaccination programme is in protecting the people we love". Meanwhile, PHE said it expects to see even higher levels of effectiveness against hospital admission and death.
Even after just one jab, both vaccines were 33% effective against symptomatic disease from the Indian variant three weeks later, compared with about 50% against the Kent strain.
Out of the 12,675 genome-sequenced cases analysed by PHE, only 1,054 were of the Indian variant. The Kent variant remains the most common strain in England, with 132,082 cases recorded since the same date.
Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant medical epidemiologist at PHE and the study's lead author, said there was more confidence in the data from the first vaccine dose compared with that from the second. He told journalists on Saturday: "There are bigger numbers that have been vaccinated with one dose. So I think we classify that as moderate certainty around the first dose, but low levels of confidence around the second dose."
However, Professor Susan Hopkins, PHE's Covid-19 strategic response director, said the data trend was "quite clear" and was heading in the "right direction".
Separate analysis by PHE indicates that the vaccination programme has so far prevented 13,000 deaths and about 39,100 hospital admissions in older people in England, up to May 9.
Latest figures show that more than 50 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have now been given in England and and in Wales 2,069,689 over 18s have now received their first dose.
