Scotland’s vaccination drive appears to be markedly reducing the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19, suggesting that both the Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca shots are highly effective in preventing severe infections, preliminary study findings showed on Monday.
Results of the study, which covered the entire Scottish population of 5.4 million people, showed that by the fourth week after the initial dose, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were found to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 85% and 94% respectively.
Data for the vaccines’ effect in Scotland was gathered between Dec. 8 and Feb. 15. Researchers said that during this period, 1.14 million vaccines were administered and 21% of Scotland’s population had received the first dose.
Among those aged 80 years and over - one of the highest risk groups for COVID-19 - vaccination was associated with an 81% reduction in hospitalization risk in the fourth week when the results for both vaccines were combined.
Jim McMenamin, Public Health Scotland’s COVID-19 incident director, said the findings are particularly important “as we move from expectation to firm evidence of benefit from vaccines”.