LONDON (AP) – The UK’s COVID-19 vaccination program is beginning to break the link between infection and serious illness or death, according to the latest results of an ongoing pandemic study in England.
Researchers at Imperial College London found that COVID-19 infections fell by around 60% in March, as national blocking measures slowed the spread of the virus. People 65 and older were the least infected, as they benefited most from the vaccination program, which initially focused on the elderly.
The study also found that the relationship between infections and deaths is divergent, “suggesting that infections may have caused fewer hospitalizations and deaths since the start of widespread vaccination.”
The positive news came amid renewed vaccination control that followed the revised UK government guidelines on Wednesday to offer people under 30 an alternative inoculation to AstraZeneca shooting, whenever possible. The change followed studies indicating that the shot may be related to very rare blood clots.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News that the public should be reassured by the abundance of precaution shown by authorities to ensure the deployment of the vaccine is as safe as possible.
“What we’ve learned in the last 24 hours is that the vaccine launch is working, we’ve seen the safety system work, because regulators can detect even this extremely rare event – four in a million – and take the actions needed to ensure the launch is as safe as possible, ”he said. “And we are seeing that the vaccine works. It is breaking the link between cases and deaths.
Some 31.7 million people had received a first dose on Tuesday, or just over 60% of the country’s adult population.
But Imperial researchers also called for caution, saying infection rates dropped at the end of the study period when the government began relieving the national closure and children were returning to school. Future rounds of the study will assess the impact that reducing restrictions has on infection rates.
The next step in lifting England’s third national closure is scheduled for April 12, when non-essential shops will be reopened, along with hairdressers, gyms and outdoor service in pubs and restaurants.
The findings are based on data collected by the 10th round of the Imperial College Community Transmission Real-Time Evaluation Study, which conducts swab tests on a random sample of people across England each month. The final round tested more than 140,000 people from March 11-30.
Although Britain has had one of the fastest vaccines in the world, the death toll from the pandemic is the highest in Europe, at more than 127,000.
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