UK coronavirus update live: latest variant news from Brazil

A single dose of the Covid vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization among older adults by up to 80 percent, new official figures suggest.

England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said the latest scientific data has “vindicated” the UK’s decision to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to older people.

Some countries, notably Germany, have refused to give the vaccine to those 65 and older due to a lack of data from testing in older age groups.

However, Professor Van-Tam said that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization had been of the opinion that it was “not immunologically plausible” that the vaccine would work in younger age groups but not in older age groups.

“We think it would almost certainly work. Data from PHE (Public Health England) have clearly vindicated that approach today, ”he said.

“I am not here to criticize other countries, but to say that I believe that over time the data that comes out of our program will speak for itself and no doubt other countries will be very interested in it.”

England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, said he hoped “over time” that vaccines will reduce disease levels across the country, reduce the likelihood of infections reaching the older population and older. vulnerable and, if infected, cases. they were more likely to be milder.

But he said “the problem has not yet been solved.”

“There is also a lot to look forward to,” he said.

“It’s very tempting to just say, ‘Well, we’ve seen the results, that means the problem is fixed.’

“The problem has not been fixed yet, but we have definitely identified a way to fix the problem and the first data shows us how to do it and where to move forward.”

The Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines have been found to be very effective in reducing infections among people aged 70 and over, Public Health England announced.

The agency found that since January protection against symptomatic cases of the virus four weeks after the first dose ranged from 57 to 61 percent for a Pfizer dose and between 60 and 73 percent for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. .

In the 1980s, data suggested that a single dose was more than 80 percent effective in preventing hospitalization, about 3 to 4 weeks after the injection.

Dr. Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunization at PHE, said: “This adds to mounting evidence showing that vaccines are working to reduce infections and save lives.

“While there is much more data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that vaccines are making a real difference.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there was “interesting new data” showing the effectiveness of vaccines.

He told a news conference in Downing Street that the data showed that “a single injection of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine works against severe infection among those over 70 years of age with a reduction of more than 80% in the hospitalizations “.

“This is very good news,” Hancock said.

“In fact, the detailed data shows that the protection you get from catching Covid 35 days after a first jab is even slightly better for the Oxford jab than for Pfizer, although both results are clearly very strong.”

The results “may also help explain why the number of Covid admissions to intensive care units among people over 80 in the UK has dropped to unique figures in the last two weeks.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the number of new coronavirus cases was declining, but the rate of decline has slowed, urging people to “keep playing by the rules, let’s not screw it up now.”

But the number of hospital admissions was declining faster than the number of cases, especially among the older groups who got vaccinated first.

“This is a sign that the vaccine is working,” he said.

There was an even clearer signal in the death data, Hancock said at a news conference in Downing Street, with the rate of decline in the older groups faster than in those under 80.

“This shows, in the real world, across the UK right now that the vaccine is helping both to protect the NHS and to save lives.”

Matt Hancock begins the briefing by praising the scale of the vaccination rollout, which surpassed 20 million injections over the weekend.

Here’s our story from yesterday:

We are about to hear from Matt Hancock, who is due to speak from Downing Street alongside Jonathan Van Tam and Susan Hopkins from PHE.

It’s a little late, but we’ll have all the updates once it starts

The former senior diplomat at the Foreign Office warned that it is “vital” to Britain’s reputation that the government ensure that a controversial cut of billions of pounds to the foreign aid budget remains a temporary measure, which has been drastically reduced last year due to the pandemic.

The government should be able to reserve the right to “hold back” students returning to campuses in the coming weeks, said a leading scientist.

Dr Mike Tildesley, a mathematics reader at the University of Warwick and a member of the SPI-M advisory group, said there must be an “opportunity to respond” if there is a high prevalence of the virus.

He said the return of some students over the next month should be done “in terms of the need for students to return.”

The comments come as a new study suggests that students should be tested every three days for Covid-19 to prevent major outbreaks on college campuses.