People who have had a booster jab will be well protected against Omicron, according to the first UK data on vaccines’ effectiveness against the variant.
However, two doses do little to stop infection and Omicron is likely to make up most cases of Covid in Britain before Christmas, the UK Health Security Agency said.
The findings will boost optimism that a renewed push on boosters can keep people safe from Omicron, with hopes that protection against severe disease will hold up even better.
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In an interview in The Times today Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, creators of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, said that Covid is “not so scary any more” as a result of the jabs’ protection, despite their concerns about Omicron.
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Data from South Africa showed hospital patients with the Omicron variant have been less likely to develop severe disease than previously, but experts have said that the number of cases may still overwhelm health services.
With cases of the variant doubling every three days in Britain, health chiefs are urging people to use testing and social distancing to avoid a spike in cases over Christmas.
The UK is on track for a million Omicron infections by the end of this month. Government scientists compared 581 cases of Omicron in Britain with 56,000 of Delta to give preliminary estimates of how well vaccines protect against a variant with mutations that help it evade the body’s immune response.
People who had had two doses of AstraZeneca several months ago had almost no protection against Omicron infection, and two Pfizer doses offered little more than 30 per cent.
But a third dose of Pfizer, most commonly used for boosters in the UK, took protection to 71 per cent in those who had AstraZeneca first and 76 per cent for those who had Pfizer initially.
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The numbers are subject to revision as more data emerges.
Yesterday another 448 cases of Omicron were confirmed, taking the total to 1,265, but it is thought true numbers may be ten times higher.
It is not yet clear whether Omicron causes more mild disease. The speed at which it is spreading means that scientists fear cases could rise so quickly over the coming days that even a small chance of being hospitalised, combined with a small drop in vaccinated protection, could mean huge numbers of admissions over Christmas.
Yesterday 469,479 booster jabs were reported, the second highest so far, taking the rolling average to a record high of 392,585.
Figures from South Africa show that about 31 per cent of hospital patients with Omicron in the city of Tshwane, the centre of the outbreak, have been classed as “severe”, meaning that they have needed oxygen or an intensive care bed. At the same stage of the Delta wave the figure was 67 per cent.
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“It does seem to be somewhat less likely to put you into hospital than previous variants,” Professor Paul Hunter, of the University of East Anglia, said. However, he added that “a steep rise in cases will lead to a steep rise in hospitalisations.”
Professor Graham Medley, who leads the Spi-M panel of modellers, said that what happened in South Africa may not translate to the UK. “The populations are very different demographically, immunologically — in terms of the different variants at different times — and vaccination,” he said.
In South Africa Omicron appears to have spread mostly among youngsters.
