The United Kingdom has been facing a third wave of Covid-19 since the beginning of June due to the high transmissibility of the Delta variant, or “Indian”. Estimated 60% more contagious than the “English” variant (renamed Alpha), Delta represents 95% of the cases sequenced in June. However, hospitals do not fill up at the same speed as during the second wave, which occurred during the winter: on June 26, 2021, there were 14 hospital admissions for 1,000 infections, while on January 12 , at the height of the second wave, this proportion stood at 101 hospitalizations for 1,000 contaminations. Even taking into account the lag of ten to fifteen days between the increase in new cases and that of hospitalizations, the level of patients expected in the hospital should have been much higher.
The explanation lies in the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign conducted across the Channel since “Less than one in ten people admitted to hospital because of the Delta variant received two doses of the vaccine”, welcomes the British Ministry of Health. In early July, 84% of UK adults had received at least one dose and 63% two doses of the vaccine – one-third with Pfizer’s vaccine and two-thirds with AstraZeneca.
This British finding is confirmed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Its head of vaccine strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said Thursday 1er July, that the “Emerging data from concrete evidence shows that two doses of vaccine protect against the Delta variant” with “The four vaccines approved in the European Union”.
According to data from the British government, the two doses of vaccine are only between 55% and 71% effective in preventing Delta variant infections (which explains why contaminations continue to rise) but are 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and 96% to reduce mortality.
The British government is showing its confidence in its vaccination campaign and does not intend to postpone “Freedom Day” when the last health restrictions in the country will be lifted. Set for July 19, it had been previously planned for June 21 but postponed due to the epidemic outbreak.
