Third Dose can give big boost to vaccine effectiveness against Omicron, reveals study

In what could be termed as a big relief amid the surging cases of new Covid variant Omicron, a new study published in UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) shows that a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine can boost a person's resistance to Omicron variant of coronavirus by as much as 88 per cent.

Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in the US informed that the vaccine effectiveness drops to 52% against Omicron around six months after taking the second shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

This latest study comes at a time when entire world is battling against the new covid variant, Omicron. Earlier, reports had suggested that effectiveness of the second dose wanes after a period of six months. Therefore, according to the latest study, the third dose will significantly give higher degree of protection against the latest mutated strain.

However, it is important to note that despite the estimated reduction in hospitalisation risk and preserved vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation, the study authors noted that there may still be large numbers of admissions to hospital.