Two doses of COVID-19 vaccine are highly protective against infection and hospitalization even among healthcare workers who have a high risk of infection, suggests a study conducted at CMC Vellore.

The study noted that vaccination provided high protection; however, it did not evaluate the proportion of cases caused by the beta (B.1.1.7) and delta (B.1.617.2) variants. The investigators could not individually study the efficacy of Covishield and Covaxin as only a few of the study participants received Covaxin. Overall, 8991 healthcare workers were vaccinated from January 21 to April 30, 2021, with around 8,400 of them receiving Covishield. Of the 7,080 healthcare workers who were given two doses, the vaccines offered 65% protection against infection, 77% protection against hospital admission, 92% protection against oxygen requirement and 94% protection against admission to the ICU. The study is published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings… (The Hindu, June 11, 2021)