Two doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine cuts the risk of hospitalisation by up to 85 per cent, according to a South African study conducted when the Omicron coronavirus variant was dominant.
The findings of the real-world study, made public on Thursday and not yet peer-reviewed, provide a significant fillip to the J&J shot, widely used in South Africa and elsewhere.
The world is grappling with an explosion in coronavirus cases caused by the variant, which was first identified late last month in southern Africa. Some countries have recorded record-breaking numbers of infections and the World Health Organization has warned of a “tsunami of cases” caused by the concurrent circulation of the Delta and Omicron variants.