(Bloomberg) — A two-shot course of Pfizer Inc.’s vaccination may offer 70% protection against being hospitalized with the Covid-19 omicron variant, South Africa’s largest medical-insurance provider Discovery Ltd. said.
The protection is maintained across age groups and in the face of a range of chronic illnesses, Ryan Noach, the chief executive officer of Discovery Health Ltd., said at a briefing Tuesday. Pfizer is 33% effective against infection by the omicron variant, he said.
The Discovery study included about 78,000 Covid-19 test results for omicron infections from Nov. 15 to Dec. 7 in South Africa, the epicenter of the current omicron wave. Clinical records, vaccination records and pathology test results were examined.
While there is a relatively high risk of reinfection with omicron, hospital-admission risk linked to omicron infection was 29% lower overall for the general adult population, compared with South Africa’s first wave of infection in mid-2020, Noach said.
The study echoes the initial findings of three other hospital groups that show most Covid patients don’t need oxygen or intensive treatment for the illness. Scientists are still conducting scores of tests in order to get a better grasp of omicron’s risks, and how significant they are will only be known in coming weeks.
