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No Omicron deaths in J&J vaccine study in South Africa, scientist says
"Although we have had a lot of breakthrough infections there has been very little hospital admission in comparison to the Delta period. And as of today we have had no one who has died from Omicron from the J&J study, so that's the good news, it shows again that the vaccine is effective against severe disease and death," South African Medical Research Council president Glenda Gray told a news conference.
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A man, not wearing a face mask, walks beneath a mural depicting a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Soweto, South Africa, Dec. 28, 2020. (Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)
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o one has died from the Omicron coronavirus variant in a study of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine in South Africa, one of the co-lead investigators of the study said on Tuesday.
"Although we have had a lot of breakthrough infections there has been very little hospital admission in comparison to the Delta period. And as of today we have had no one who has died from Omicron from the J&J study, so that's the good news, it shows again that the vaccine is effective against severe disease and death," South African Medical Research Council president Glenda Gray told a news conference.
Another study conducted in South Africa also found two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appear to have given 70 percent protection against hospitalisation in South Africa in recent weeks, a major real-world study on the potential impact of Omicron showed on Tuesday, as the country battles a spike in infections linked to the new variant.
The study released by South Africa's largest private health insurance administrator, Discovery Health, was based on more than 211,000 positive COVID-19 test results from Nov. 15 to Dec. 7, around 78,000 of which were attributed to Omicron.
The 78,000 results are not confirmed Omicron cases, meaning the study is not able to make conclusive findings about the variant labelled "of concern" by the World Health Organization.
South African scientists have so far confirmed around 550 Omicron sequences, with the variant accounting for 78 percent of sequences from November, more than the previously dominant Delta variant.
South Africa alerted the world to Omicron late last month, triggering alarm that it could cause another surge in global infections, and leading to the imposition of travel restrictions on southern Africa. South Africa's daily infections have since risen to around 20,000 in recent days.
Based on analysis by Discovery's clinical research and actuarial teams, and in collaboration with South Africa's Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the study calculated that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech offered 70 percent protection against hospitalisation compared with the unvaccinated during the recent surge in cases and 33 percent protection against infection.
It said this represents a drop from 80 percent protection against infection and compares with above 90 percent efficacy against hospital admission during South Africa's outbreak of the Delta variant, which is the globally dominant variant and considered to be the most infectious to emerge during the pandemic.
Discovery cautioned that the study's findings should be considered preliminary.
But Glenda Gray, SAMRC president, said it was important that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appeared to be offering good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation as a highly transmissible new variant circulates.
"We are extremely encouraged by the results," she said in a statement.
