Advertisement

Just 0.07% of people catch COVID after two vaccine doses, study finds

Less than 0.1% of people catch COVID after receiving two vaccine doses, a study has suggested. (PA)
Less than 0.1% of people catch COVID after receiving two vaccine doses, a study has suggested. (PA)

Just 154 out of more than 200,000 people to have received both coronavirus vaccines subsequently tested positive for the disease, a major study has found.

An Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey, carried out between 1 December last year and 31 May, found 154 adults out of 210,918 to receive two jabs went on to be infected.

That’s 0.07%.

The study was based on AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, which account for the vast majority administered in the UK.

Data also showed how infections plummeted four weeks after the first dose, as demonstrated by the below chart.

ONS infection data after one vaccine dose.
ONS infection data after one vaccine dose.

The study was carried out over a time period when the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, was dominant in the UK. It has now been overtaken by the Delta variant, first identified in India.

However, Public Health England revealed on Monday the continued high effectiveness of the vaccines against symptomatic disease (about 80%) and hospitalisations (about 94%) from the Delta variant after two doses.

Watch: Vaccine in numbers

As a result, the ONS figures can still offer Boris Johnson vindication for his decision earlier this week to delay the end of England's lockdown until 19 July.

Johnson paused the unlocking, originally planned for Monday, due to the spread of the 60% more infectious Delta variant, which could have killed thousands more people if all restrictions were dropped.

The prime minister said a four-week delay would allow for more people to receive a second jab and gain the maximum possible protection from the virus.

Data have shown one vaccine dose provides only limited effectiveness of between 26% and 40% against symptomatic cases of Delta variant COVID-19.

Read more:

Indian variant could have R number as high as 7, MPs warned

Have your say: Do you think Matt Hancock is 'hopeless'?

As of Tuesday, the latest date for which figures are available, 42.2% of UK adults – more than 20 million people – had not received a second dose.

The government is aiming to have double jabbed 34 million people, or two-thirds of the adult population, by the end of July. The figure currently stands at 30,440,373.

Watch: Thursday's daily politics briefing