‘Pfizer vaccine 91% effective after 6 months’: New findings

Pfizer also said the vaccine was highly effective against the South African variant in the latest phase of ongoing clinical trials.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine remained highly effective against Covid-19 after six months, according to new long-term results that Pfizer said could be used to seek an expansion of the shot’s regulatory status.

In the US alone, the efficacy rate was 92.6%, according to a report on Thursday by the two companies. (REUTERS)

Follow-up data from a final-stage trial of 46,307 people showed the coronavirus vaccine was 91.3% effective in preventing symptomatic cases starting one week after the second dose through as long as six months. In the US alone, the efficacy rate was 92.6%, according to a report on Thursday by the two companies.

At the same time, the companies provided some of the first data on how their vaccine might handle the immune-evading B.1.351 variant that arose in South Africa.

Pfizer also said the vaccine was highly effective against the South African variant in the latest phase of ongoing clinical trials. No cases of the disease were observed in South Africa during the phase-three trial study among participants who had received their second dose, it said in a joint statement with BioNTech.

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, has announced a nationwide four-week lockdown starting on Saturday, closing schools and business, in the latest sign that Europe is yet again losing control of the pandemic.

The World Health Organization lambasted Europe’s “unacceptably slow” vaccine roll-out, adding that the continent’s surge in cases was “worrying”.

In Germany, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, two days after authorities recommended use of the jab only for people aged 60 and over.