Vaccines effective against Delta variant: UK study

London: Obtaining two vaccine doses remains the most effective way to ensure protection against the COVID-19 Delta variant of concern (VOC), first identified in India and now dominant in the UK, one of Britain's largest studies of its kind concluded on Thursday.

The study by scientists at the University of Oxford, involving more than 700,000 randomly selected people from within the community, found that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines still offer good protection against new infections.

The vaccine is being produced and administered in India as Covishield. "With Delta, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines still offer good protection against new infections, but effectiveness is reduced compared with Alpha (first identified in England last year and previously the dominant VOC in the UK)," read the findings released by the university's Nuffield Department of Medicine.

"Two doses of either vaccine still provided at least the same level of protection as having had COVID-19 before through natural infection; people who had been vaccinated after already being infected with COVID-19 had even more protection than vaccinated individuals who had not had COVID-19 before," it notes.