Booster protects up to 75 percent of omicrons

In a report, the British government assumes that protection against Omikron will be significantly improved if you have a third vaccine. There is also information on the severity of the course of the disease.

An official report published on Friday summarizes the potential impact of the third vaccination against the Omikron variant for Great Britain – based on the first, albeit scant, data. Accordingly, patients are 70 to 75 percent protected from Omikron if they receive a booster vaccination. Although the study is based on a small number of patients (131 omicron cases), it can still be assumed that the two vaccinations are insufficient.

An official UK Department of Health report said: “Preliminary estimates of vaccine efficacy (VE) against symptomatic infections found a significantly lower VE against oomicron infection compared to delta infection.” It is assumed that the booster can also help prevent severe illness, even if the exact data on this is not expected for two weeks. In the studies available to date, a significantly higher transmission rate is assumed.

Also at risk of second contact

The British update of the situation sees the risk of transmission in the family environment and as second contact being greater. The Omicron virus is expected to be responsible for as many cases as the Delta variant in mid-September. The risk of re-infection is considered to be three to ten times.

To date, there are no known cases of people with Omicron in the UK who have had to be hospitalized or have died. However, this is also due to the fact that there can be a time lag between infection and the acute course longer than the time since the new variant has been known.

The Omikron variant was also detected in wastewater in five samples taken between 26 and 28 November from four of 477 wastewater treatment plants and sewage networks.