THE Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is 79 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 and offers 100 per cent protection against severe disease, new data from a US-led trial has shown.

The jab is also 100 per cent effective at keeping people out of hospital with severe illness, the trial has revealed.

Some 32,449 people across all age groups took part in the phase three trial in the US, Chile and Peru, with a total of 141 cases of symptomatic Covid-19 reported.

The results showed that among people aged 65 and over, there was 80 per cent protection against developing Covid-19.

The degree of effectiveness against symptomatic Covid-19 was even higher than observed in the Oxford-led clinical trials.

An independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) also identified no safety concerns relating to the vaccine.

Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity, and lead investigator of the Oxford University trial of the vaccine, said: “These results are great news as they show the remarkable efficacy of the vaccine in a new population and are consistent with the results from Oxford-led trials.

“We can expect strong impact against Covid-19 across all ages and for people of all different backgrounds from widespread us of the vaccine.”

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology, and co-designer of the vaccine, said the new findings “provide further confirmation of the safety and effectiveness” of the jab.

She added: “In many different countries and across age groups, the vaccine is providing a high level of protection against Covid-19 and we hope this will lead to even more widespread use of the vaccine in the global attempts to bring the pandemic to an end.

“Twenty per cent of people in this trial were over the age of 65 and there was no drop in protection for those people, it was just as good in the over 65s as it was in the younger people and that’s very clear from this trial.”

Ann Falsey, professor of medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in the US, and co-lead principal investigator for the trial, said it was “exciting to see similar efficacy results in people over 65 for the first time”.

She added: “This analysis validates the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as a much-needed additional vaccination option, offering confidence that adults of all ages can benefit from protection against the virus.”

Mene Pangalos, executive vice president for biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, said: “These results add to the growing body of evidence that shows this vaccine is well tolerated and highly effective against all severities of Covid-19 and across all age groups.

“We are confident this vaccine can play an important role in protecting millions of people worldwide against this lethal virus."