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The Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines have been found to be highly effective against the coronavirus variant that was first identified in India, according to a study by Public Health England (PHE), Al Jazeera reported. 

The Pfizer vaccine was 88-percent effective and the AstraZeneca jab was 60-percent effective against the B1617.2 strain after the second dose. Both the vaccines were more effective against the so-called “Kent” strain – B.1.1.7, the COVID-19 variant dominant in Britain – with Pfizer being 93-percent effective while the AstraZeneca jab was 66-percent effective over the same period.

However, they were only 33-percent effective three weeks after the first dose.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the outcome as “groundbreaking,” while PHE said it expects to see even higher levels of effectiveness against hospital admission and death.

The study, which took place between April 5 and May 16, found that both the vaccines were 33-percent effective against symptomatic disease from the B1617.2 strain three weeks after the first dose, compared with about 50 percent against the B.1.1.7 strain.