JnJ COVID booster 85 percent effective against Omicron hospitalisation: SAMRC
Johannesburg: A Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine booster shot is 85% effective in protecting against being hospitalised by the Omicron variant for 1-2 months after it is received, the head of South Africa's Medical Research Council (SAMRC) said on Friday.
Glenda Gray presented the findings of a SAMRC study at a South African health ministry briefing on the COVID-19 fourth wave, which has been driven by the new variant.
"We saw an 85% vaccine effectiveness and we saw that this kind of vaccine effectiveness is maintained for up to two months," she said. "We are very happy to report very high levels of vaccine effectiveness against Omicron."
The study involved 477,234 healthcare workers, all of them vaccinated with the J&J shot, of whom 236,000 -- roughly half -- had received the J&J booster shot.
It looked at hospitalisations among those healthcare workers who had been infected during the fourth wave, and found that the booster shot reduced hospitalisations by 63% in the first two weeks after the booster, going up to 85% after that for between one and two months.
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