COVID-19: Two doses of J&J vaccine can reduce hospitalization for omicron by 85%

People vaccinated with two doses of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) Jansenn vaccine may be 85% protected from needing hospitalization after contracting COVID-19 with the omicron variant, according to a study conducted in South Africa.

The research was conducted on a sample of 69,092 healthcare workers who were given a booster shot of J&J (the same formula they had already received for their first dose) between November 15 and December 20.

At that time, South Africa was going through its fourth great wave of HIV infections. COVID-19, powered by the omicron variant.

In particular, the researchers observed that the efficacy against hospitalization was 63% shortly after the second inoculation and that the protection “increased over time”, reaching 84% after two weeks and in 85% from one month after the reinforcement.

The study, which counts the renowned researcher Linda-Gail Bekker among its main firms, has so far been published as preprint and must be submitted to peer review by the scientific community.

South Africa began offering booster doses to its general population last week, but before this measure came into force it had already started applying them to its health workers under a special program called “Sisonke”.

The formulas used for the vaccination against COVID in this country, which was the first to give the alert about the detection of omicron at the end of last November, are those of Pfizer y Johnson.

With an accumulated 3.4 million cases and nearly 91,000 deaths, South Africa is the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent.

The vaccination rate, however, is still low, as only about 27% of the population has the full schedule.

The current wave of infections driven by omicron, although it is causing a greater number of infections than other variants, is leaving a remarkably lower proportion of deaths and hospitalizations.