On the coronavirus variants, Dissi stated that AstraZeneca and scientists worldwide continue to monitor new variants of COVID-19 closely and carefully assess their impact on vaccine effectiveness.
Currently, the World Health Organization recognizes four variants that display increased transmission, or virulence, and are considered variants of concern. “Our vaccine is effective against WHO-identified variants of concern including the current circulating Beta and Delta variants,” he assured.
Vaccines, Dissi indicated, remain the most cost-effective protection against COVID-19 and are a good tool to help defeat the pandemic and help save lives, adding that the WHO, and other international bodies, have all stated that the benefits of vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca continue to outweigh any potential risks.
He said that the vaccine has been shown to have a favorable reactogenicity and general safety profile, pointing out that incidents of an extremely rare blood disorder, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (TTS) have been reported in a small number of people who have received the vaccine within 14 days of the first dose (8.1 events per million vaccinated) which reduced to rates expected in the general population after the second dose (2.3 events per million vaccinated).
The United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the United Nations recommendations state that TTS in these patients are treatable, he underscored. Additionally, data from three large, real-world studies with over 4.5 million individuals from the UK and Spain, COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines showed similar safety profiles.
Rates of rare blood clotting events after the first dose with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca were in line with what would be expected in the general population and lower than in those diagnosed with COVID-19, while rates of venous thromboembolism were 6 to 8 times higher after a diagnosis of COVID-19 infection compared with the expected rate, he said.
In clinical trials with up to 60,000 people, the vaccine has been shown to be well tolerated and effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalizations more than 14 days after the first dose, Dissi told Petra.
A good level of protection, he added, is given following the first dose with exploratory analysis showing 73% efficacy, 22 days after a single dose of vaccine. Extending the dose interval up to 12 weeks can boost efficacy to around 80%, more than 14 days after the second dose, he pointed out.
In February of 2021, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) authorized the use of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. Jordan has received three shipments of the vaccine to date through COVAX.
Before the authorization was granted, AstraZeneca had already been working closely with the Jordanian government, COVAX and other stakeholders to accelerate and finalize the required supply agreements to ensure access to the vaccine as early as possible in 2021.
Source: Jordan News Agency