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Published Friday, February 5, 2021
AstraZeneca vaccine is effective
against covid-19, say experts
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff and wire services
The primary analysis of the Phase III clinical trials from the UK, Brazil and South Africa, confirmed covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca is safe and effective at preventing covid-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalizations, even after 22 days after the first dose, the biopharmaceutical said on Thursday.
According to AstraZeneca, the results demonstrated vaccine efficacy of 76% after a first dose, with protection maintained to the second dose. With an inter-dose interval of 12 weeks or more, the vaccine efficacy increased to 82%.
The analysis also showed the potential for the vaccine to reduce asymptomatic transmission of the virus, based on weekly swabs obtained from volunteers in the United Kingdom trial.
The data showed that PCR positive readings were reduced by 67% after a single dose, and 50% after the two-dose regimen, supporting a substantial impact on the transmission of the virus.
The primary analysis for efficacy was based on 17,177 participants accruing 332 symptomatic cases from the Phase III trials in UK, Brazil and South Africa led by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. This was 201 cases more than previously reported.
“This primary analysis reconfirms that our vaccine prevents severe disease and keeps people out of the hospital," Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President BioPharmaceuticals R&D said. "In addition, extending the dosing interval not only boosts the vaccine’s efficacy but also enables more people to be vaccinated upfront. Together with the new findings on reduced transmission, we believe this vaccine will have a real impact on the pandemic.”
Data will continue to be analyzed and shared with regulators around the world to support their ongoing rolling reviews for emergency supply or conditional approval during the health crisis.
AstraZeneca is also seeking Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization for an accelerated pathway to vaccine availability in low-income countries.
The vaccine can be stored, transported and handled at normal refrigerated conditions, approximately 28 degrees Celsius or 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit, for at least six months and administered within existing healthcare settings.
AstraZeneca was co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spin-out company, Vaccitech.
In 2020, the Costa Rica government signed an agreement with the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to buy one million doses of its vaccine, AZD1222.
According to the government, each dose will be priced at $4, so the estimated price of this purchase is at least $4 million, without including additional distribution costs. Vaccine purchases would be made with funds from the National Emergency Fund that is being used to face the crisis caused by the pandemic. The vaccine would be administered in two sessions, meaning that one million doses would cover half a million people. However, the vaccine arrival date has not yet been set.
Meanwhile, deaths and infections continue to increase according to the most recent statistics of the covid-19 evolution published by the Ministry of Health on Thursday listed below.
• 455 new covid-19 cases are reported, bringing the total to 37,749 current active cases.
• 24,237 foreign-born people have been infected, totaling 195,992 cases since March, approximately 12.3% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. But since October, there is no updated information about foreign-born deaths due to covid-19.
• 380 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 173 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions. Their ages range from 1 to 92-years-old. And 207 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 155,581 patients have fully recovered, a 79.4% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 601,058 covid-19 tests have been conducted in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.
• 2,662 deaths are listed as covid-19 related, approximately 1.4% death rate. Of these 1,003 are women and 1,659 men. The ages range from a 2-year-old to a 101-year-old.
Readers can see the current number of infected people in each district at the National Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed more than 2.2 million people worldwide.
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