Sinovac, Pfizer’s effectiveness drops but they maintain their protection against severe cases – telam

Vaccines from Sinovac and Pfizer / BioNTech companies have lost their effectiveness in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 but maintain their protection to avoid severe cases, according to a study by the government of Chile, one of the countries with the highest vaccination rate. higher, revealed on Tuesday. .

According to the study of the effectiveness of the vaccination program of the Chilean Ministry of Health – which has already vaccinated approximately 65% ​​of the population with two doses – the effectiveness of the vaccine Coronavac, the most used in the country, fell to 58.49% to prevent symptomatic cases.

In April, the official study had reported a 67% efficiency, while on June 26, the Ministry of Health indicated that it had fallen within a range of 63 to 64%.

As for Pfizer, that being less massive had not been taken into account in previous studies, a 87.69% effectiveness, but international studies had previously placed the effectiveness above 90%.

However, both Coronovac and Pfizer maintain protection against the development of severe cases of the disease.

“Protection against Covid infection is falling, but protection against the most important issues remains,” Rafael Araos, adviser to the Chilean Ministry of Health, explained at a press conference, according to the AFP agency.

For Coronavac 86.02% efficiency is recorded in the prevention of hospitalization; 89.68% for intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and 86.38% for deaths, and for Pfizer These same items are reported at 97.15%, 98.29% and 100%, respectively.

Chile, which began mass vaccination on February 3, has already vaccinated around 80% of its target population (15.2 million out of a total population of 19 million).