Omicron: Dr Hopkins discusses AstraZeneca's protection
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Dr Hopkins, the adviser for the UK Health Security Agency, warned that having two doses of a Covid vaccine offers less defence against symptoms of infection from Omicron than with Delta. Dr Hopkins warned that people who have had to doses of AstraZeneca will be poorly protected against the new tough strain, urging people in this group to come forward for their immunisation top-up. The medical adviser also confirmed a wave of infections could sweep across Britain in the coming months, potentially fuelling a surge in deaths.
Dr Hopkins said: “The AstraZeneca vaccine is highly likely to prevent severe disease and that’s really important.
“But what we’re seeing is that having had the vaccine more than three months ago, with everyone who’s had AstraZeneca in that basket now, there’s minimal protection from the vaccine to prevent mild infection to the community.
“Particularly for those people who have had AstraZeneca, they need to come forward.”
Dr Hopkins went on to explain infection and transmission rates were similar for both AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
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She added: “But one you’re boosted, you get a 77 percent vaccine effectiveness to reduce symptomatic infection in the community.”
The warning comes as the latest figures released by the UK Health Security Agency mark the largest daily increase in Omicron cases in the UK since the variant was detected.
The health watchdog yesterday recorded a daily increase of 633 Omicron cases, bringing the total number to 1,898.
Cases of the novel B1.1.529 variant, which dr Hopkins had previously described as one of the “most worrying” seen in the country to date, are set to skyrocket in coming months.
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She continued: “We’re still in the early days of understanding Omicron and how it affects people.
“If you’ve had prior infection or you’ve had vaccination we would you expect you to have less severe disease.
“However, the sheer weight of numbers that look like are coming towards us with the Omicron infection means that it will find those people who are unvaccinated or who have had a poor response to the vaccine.
“And that will still mean that we will still see individuals in hospital.
“In the confirmed cases in the UK at the moment, we’ve only seen a very small number over the age of 70, who are the people with most severe disease in hospital.
“We’re asking people to take personal precautions by wearing their face coverings, use ventilation, get their vaccine if they haven’t had it, or get boosted if they have.
“[This will] reduce the impact on hospitals and prevent the severity of disease that will impact all of us.”
Dr Hopkins went on to say that reports of individuals hospitalised with Omicron have started growing over the last few days.
Hospitals are reportedly diagnosing more and more patients coming to their emergency departments with the variant, but no deaths have been reported in relation to the virus so far.
However, the expert states this number is expected to increase.
She concluded: “It’s really important to remember, it’s been just over two weeks since we first detected cases in the United Kingdom.”
Hospitalisations only start to be seen around two weeks, whereas deaths are typically seen at three to four weeks.
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