August 25, 2021 5.44 pm This story is over 31 months old

Evidence vaccine protection starting to wane, with 594 new COVID cases on Wednesday in Lincolnshire

Efficiency of two doses drops with time
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

There have been 594 cases of Coronavirus confirmed in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, as researchers say vaccine protection has started to drop.

Government figures published on Wednesday afternoon showed 420 new cases in Lincolnshire, 100 in North East Lincolnshire and 74 in North Lincolnshire.

The figures showed two new deaths of Greater Lincolnshire residents with one each in Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Meanwhile, NHS figures show four three deaths, with one at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust facilities and two more at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals.

Nationally, cases increased by 35,847 to 6,590,747 while deaths rose by 149 to 132,003.

Researchers have said there is some waning of protection among the double jabbed. A study of more than two million people who had received two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine saw protection from the former drop to 74% after five to six months and 67% for the latter at four to five months.

Professor Tim Spector, lead scientist on the Zoe COVID Study app, said it was to  be expected, telling Sky News that his “pessimistic guess” was that immunity for early cohorts reduce to 50% by the end of the year. He said the decrease could be resulting in “breakthrough” infections.

Lincolnshire’s coronavirus cases up to August 25. | Image: GOV.uk

The UK is expected to begin offering some people a third COVID booster jab next month, but is waiting for recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccine Immunisation.

Mr Spector said: “Many people may not need them. Many people may have had a natural booster because they’ve already had a natural COVID infection, so will effectively have had three vaccines.

“The whole thing needs to be much more carefully managed than just giving it to everybody which would be a huge waste and ethically dubious given the resources we have. I think we need a more targeted approach than last time.”

Further warnings of rising numbers have come from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG).

Professor Ravindra Gupta has told BBC Radio Four there was going to be a surge in cases due to summer festivals, events and the school return.

“Of course there is going to be an associated surge in cases, given that the young people in these events are largely going to be unvaccinated. So that’s just something that is predictable and will happen, despite best efforts,” he said.

“We know that Delta is far more infectious, it ramps up very quickly. We know the lateral flow devices are not perfect. So we just have to be realistic and say that this is going to lead to a significant surge in infections.”

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, August 25

95,458 cases (up 594)

  • 62,550 in Lincolnshire (up 420)
  • 14,723 in North Lincolnshire (up 74)
  • 18,185 in North East Lincolnshire (up 100)

2,262 deaths (up two)

  • 1,660 from Lincolnshire (up one)
  • 308 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
  • 293 from North East Lincolnshire (up one)

of which 1,362 hospital deaths (up three)

  • 838 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (up one)
  • 44 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
  • 1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
  • 479 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (up two)

6,590,747 UK cases, 132,003 deaths

DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF THE LATEST UPDATE. POSTCODE DATA INCLUDES DEATHS NOT IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES OR IN HOSPITALS OUTSIDE AUTHORITY BOUNDARIES.